Can't do anything right!
by Sci-fi Girl 102
Summary: Gunner makes a promise to his daughter but at the first chance he's given, he breaks his promise. Then his past catches up with him and threatens to take away the last good thing in his life. Will the expendables be able to stop what's in plan for revenge or will Gunner loose everything he loves.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Guys. Another story so if you like you know the drill. Follow and review. Also the word "Cle" is not a typo. It's a nickname for Cleo. Take away the "Oh" sounding at the end. If you haven't read my first two stories it might be a bit confusing as it reveals more about how Gunner became a Father but not essential.**

Cleo was almost jumping up and down on her seat in Heather's car as they were less than half a mile away from Cleo's house. She was finally on her way to see her dad and she literally couldn't wait.

Work had been horrible. For the first two hours there had been no customers, which meant that all the deep cleaning had to be done on the shelves and windows. Then when customers finally did come in, Cleo wished they would just go away. A little boy came in and asked for a 2lb bag of skittles but didn't like the purple or orange ones, so Cleo had to take those ones out with a pair of tongs to keep him happy. Then some posh lady had come in and wanted the best vegan chocolate that the store had. What the fuck was vegan chocolate? After double-checking with owner, who had the same look Cleo did, she had to politely apologise and advised that the store didn't sell any.

The snob didn't except that and demanded to see the owner. Paul then explained that they didn't have any vegan chocolate and suggested a few places that the lady could find some. The posh snob then seemed to explode with rage at Paul, and once she left, everyone including some customers couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Cleo had then made a mental note to Google what the hell vegan chocolate was.

Luckily after that incident there was just less than 2 hours of work left, which passed relatively quickly. Once the store closed, Paul and the rest of the guys at the store asked Cleo and Heather to go and grab an early dinner with them. Usually Cleo would say yes to this invite but she was so excited to go and see her dad, make sure he was ok and show him her trophy that she said no. Heather had said no as well because she was babysitting her younger siblings as her parents were out for the night. Cleo didn't say it but she was so happy that Heather said no to go out for dinner with everyone. If Heather had said yes Cleo didn't expect her to drive her home first and would have had to take two buses to get home. That meant more time getting home!

"Ok. Here you go." Heather said as she pulled up outside Cleo's house.

"Thanks Heth. Will I just text you about next week?" Cleo replied, grabbing her bag from the car floor.

"Yeah that's fine. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you at school." Replied Heather.

"Yeah, you to. Enjoy looking after your brothers." Cleo shouted as she closed the door and saw Heather's annoyed expression, which Cleo smirked at.

Cleo went to the front door and found that it was open. If it was locked it meant that her dad was out running errands or at the gym.

Cleo's excitement was now even bigger. She quickly pushed the door open, kicked off her shoes and ran through into the kitchen to see if her dad was there first.

"Dad…Dad!" She shouted.

Nope, he wasn't in the kitchen. Cleo then ran through the door that led to the living room to see if he was there.

"Dad…Dad!"

Nope still nothing.

Cleo was about to run into the hallway and run upstairs to look, but as she turned around, she saw that the patio sliding door was open very slightly.

Cleo walked over and slid the door across so it was open fully and found what she was looking for.

Sitting on a deck chair on the patio was her dad. Gunner Jensen. He was sitting on the chair and was sharpening his bowie knife. By the looks of it he hadn't heard Cleo yet and looked deep in thought as he cleaned the blade. Either his mind was still on the job or something else was up.

"Dad!" Cleo shouted just encase he didn't hear her.

Luckily Gunner did hear her. He looked up from sharpening his bowie knife and the smile on his face showed that he had missed Cleo, just as much as she had missed him. Just like he had promised so many times before, he had once again made it home safely to his little girl.

Cleo dropped her bag and hoodie on the ground and ran towards Gunner. At the same time Gunner stood up off the deck chair, placed the knife on the table and opened his arms for Cleo to run into. As she did Gunner picked her up and spun her around, hugging her tightly before placing her back on the ground.

"Hey princess." Gunner said as they finished hugging.

"Hey Dad. Are you ok? Did you get shot?" Cleo asked frantically. She could tell that when he spun her around, his muscles were shaking. Either he was sore from injury or Cleo had put on weight.

"No I didn't get shot. I'm just a bit sore from the job but don't worry, you should see the other guy. Nobody messes with your dad the Viking" Gunner replied with a wink.

Cleo could tell that the job was still on his mind and it would take a day for him to return to his normal self. She was just so glad to have him home that she didn't want to ask about it just yet. Maybe in a few days she would ask what the job was about.

"Yeah the Viking always conquers." Cleo said with a slight roll of her eyes at her dad's joke.

"Listen I know you just got back but do you wanna do something tonight. Maybe a movie, go out to dinner or order in?"

"Actually Cle, the teams gathering at Tool's tonight. I said if you weren't to tired, we'd go and Emily and Sam will be there." Gunner said with a touch of hope in his voice that Cleo would say yes.

"A night at Tool's sounds good to me but I'm guessing I'm driving so that you can drink?" Replied Cleo.

In all honesty a night at Tool's did sound really good. If it was just her and Gunner, she would be constantly staring at him and looking for signs of pain and distress from the job. A few beers would do him good and to mess around with the guys, even if it meant Cleo driving them there and back again.

"Hey, when you're old enough to drink, we'll swap roles." Gunner replied.

"Ok deal. Just let me shower and change, then we can go." Cleo said as she headed to the door to pick up her bag and hoodie that she dropped.

"Take your time Cle. No one's going over till 7 and its only 4:40." Gunner shouted as Cleo disappeared back inside the house.

"Ok Viking." Cleo called back laughing as she stuck her head out of the door so Gunner heard her.

She quickly ran up the stairs and headed straight for her bedroom so she could collapse on her bed for a few moments. As she collapsed on the bed, Cleo finally felt relaxed for the first time in days.

She decided to quickly look through Facebook and check her messages before going to shower. Nothing interesting on Facebook and she only had a message from Emily asking if she was going to Tool's tonight. She quickly replied to the message and shut her eyes for a second before she went to get ready

A moment later, Cleo felt a big hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her out of her thoughts and the over powering smell of men's aftershave was filling her room.

"Cle, you awake?" Gunner asked softly.

"Yeah Dad. I only closed my eyes for a second and I'll be ready by 6:45. Don't worry." Cleo said sleepily with yawn as she open her eyes.

"Cle it's 6:35." Gunner said with a concerned look on his face.

Cleo bolted upright into a sitting position and checked the time on her watch. Sure enough the time said 6:35pm. She must have fallen asleep and closing her eyes for two seconds turned into an almost two hour nap.

"Oh my God! Dad I'm sorry but I'll be ready as soon as I can." Cleo was racing towards the bathroom and picking up the pile of clean clothes to get changed into.

"Whoa slow down. Just chill and don't rush. If we're late, then we're late."

Gunner's words fell on deaf ears and as he finished talking, the bathroom door slammed shut and the shower turned on.

Luckily Cleo didn't have to wash her hair so she had a quick body shower and brushed her teeth. She then changed into denim jeans, a plain black muscle shirt and pulled a red and black long sleeved plaid shirt over the muscle shirt. Cleo then quickly re-tied her hair in a ponytail and sprinted back to her room to grab her bag, jacket and shoes.

Grabbing her converse, strap bag and a random hoodie, she bolted down stairs to meet her dad.

"See!" Cleo was completely out of breath bur she had made it in time.

"I told you I'd be ready by 6:45. Now let's roll." With a triumphant smile, Cleo strolled passed Gunner, grabbed the truck keys and started it up while Gunner locked up the house.

A few moments later he came out of the house, locked the door while still looking amused at Cleo as he jumped in the passenger side.

"Just like your mom." Gunner said as he climbed into the passenger seat and they headed for Tool's

The one thing Gunner was thankful for was that Cleo had her mother's nature, dark hair but had his looks. If she looked like her mom and had Gunner's wild nature, he always wondered if their relationship would be different. Luckily she got her good nature from Rebecca although if she was really mad, she had the same temper as he did. He always wondered when she was growing up, how he would handle conversations about make up, clothes and other girl topics that girls liked to talk about. Girls didn't talk about those things with their dads. However he didn't have anything to worry about. Cleo preferred talking about sports, actions films, and karate and hated going clothes shopping. Every time her aunt Mandy came for a visit she would moan that Gunner needed to buy Cleo better clothes. Then she would lecture Cleo that she needed more fashion sense and that there are more colours than red, black, blue or cameo. The two of them would just shake their heads at her and change the subject as quickly as they could.

Cleo had never given him any trouble and just like Rebecca, everything had to be done on time and to be perfect. Failure was not a word she knew. Whenever he looked amused at her, it just reminded him of Rebecca and the things she used to do. The guys always teased him that the only way they knew he was her father was because of their resemblance and that it was a miracle Gunner ended up with a daughter like Cleo. Rebecca had also made sure that from the day she was born, Cleo carried his name and for that he was grateful.

They drove in silence to Tool's until they were about two miles away, Gunner was looking for something on the car floor and all of a sudden let out a loud booming laugh that echoed through the car.

"What's so funny, dad?" Cleo asked looking at him and trying to keep her eyes on the road at the same time.

"Did you think everyone has forgotten who you are?" Gunner asked while still laughing to himself.

"What are you talking about?"

"Cle, you've brought your soccer hoodie. The one with "JENSEN" written in big letters on the back on it. Everyone knows who you are." Finally stopping his laughter, Gunner found what he was looking for on the car floor.

A look of shock, annoyance and then finally amusement crossed Cleo's face.

"Ah Man! I grabbed the wrong one cause I was in such a rush. I'm so stupid."

"Cle, you grabbed the wrong one. It's not the end of the world, just chill." Gunner could see that Cleo was tensing up because she grabbed the wrong one and she was annoyed at herself for not getting the right one she wanted.

"It's ok, I'll just leave it in the truck. I need it for practise on Monday anyway and I don't need knife cuts in it or beer spilt on it tonight. I've done enough laundry this week." Cleo replied with a smile on her face as she pulled into Tool's garage.

All of the team had brought their bikes meaning that there was room for Cleo to park the truck in the garage. This was a rough area and the truck wasn't worth anything but it wasn't worth the risk of someone damaging it on the street or stealing it. Even with the reputation of Tool's shop as well.

Cleo turned off the engine, jumped out the truck, locked it up and her and Gunner walked into the shop together.

By the look of it, they were the first to arrive.

"Hey Sugar plum, where you been hiding all week? Came to check on you and you weren't there." Tool was the first to come and hug Cleo and as usual called her the nickname she hated.

"Sorry warden. I needed to stay and do extra dance prep this week." Cleo replied as she was released from her bear hug.

"Just ignore that old man, Cleo. He's getting worse than your dad at making sure your safe when he's away." Barney said as he appeared in front of Cleo and was next to hug her.

"Hey! Lil girl all alone in a big city like New Orleans needs protecting" Replied Tool as he handed Gunner and Barney a beer.

'I can take care of myself, Grandpa!" Cleo said going to the fridge and helping herself to a soda.

She always called Tool grandpa when he talked about protecting her. Grandpa pissed him off because he said it hurt his ladies man image he had.

"Enough with the Grandpa shit, Sugar plum. I could kick your ass any day." Replied Tool taking a swig of his beer.

"Oh please! The next mobile vehicle you'll need will be a walker with tennis balls on the bottom. Cleo could kick your ass any day."

Cleo spun round and seen Emily and Toll Road walking into the shop. Emily always seemed to appear when she needed back up. It wasn't that Cleo couldn't defend herself, but that Emily could hit back with some remark in an instant with her quick talking mouth.

Emily was trained in self-defence but she practiced Judo not karate – she wasn't as strong as Cleo though – making both girls fighters. Plus both Gunner and Toll made sure their daughters knew how to handle a gun including a sniper rifle. The team always said that Cleo could fight her way out of any situation and Emily could talk her way out of any situation.

"Well good evening to you to smart mouth. I was hoping you would turn up."

"I heard someone was dissing my girl. Had to show up to have her back." Replied Emily as she slung her arm around Cleo's shoulder.

"Oh I think that shorty can handle herself." Replied Tool.

What the Fuck did he just say?

Cleo hated sugar plum as a nickname but when someone made fun of her height, the Jensen temper came out.

"Shorty huh. Well I'll show you just how well shorty can handle herself."

Cleo's face was almost the same colour as her plaid shirt she was that angry at what Tool had just said.

Cleo walked over to Tool and on his free hand without the beer, gave him a bent wrist strike. It gave her the result she wanted.

"Owww! Ok, ok I take it back. Cleo is strong enough to defend herself."

When Cleo struck Tool, He was on his knees in a second and was scrunching up his face with the pain Cleo was causing him.

"What else?" Cleo asked applying more pressure.

"I'm sorry for calling you shorty." Tool replied through gritted teeth.

Emily and Cleo exchanged a quick glance and both nodded at each other before Cleo released Tool.

Tool placed his beer on the floor and rubbed his forearm trying to relieve the pain in his wrist and getting the feeling back in his wrist. After a few moments, Tool picked up his beer and got back on his feet.

"Damn, brother!" As he turned to Gunner.

"You gotta get that girl under control. You gonna let her get away with that."

Throughout out the whole conversation, Barney, Toll and Gunner had continued to drink their beer, laugh and did nothing to stop Cleo.

"That's my girl." Was Gunner's reply as he and Cleo fist bumped each other.

Tool opened his open mouth to protest but everyone including him just fell about laughing at Gunner's response.

"You know ya'll used to be my friends but since you started bringing your daughters here, I get beat up in my own shop."

"Oh come on drama queen. We were only messing with you." Replied Emily as she went over to Tool and hugged him.

"Yeah me to." As Cleo went to hug him again as a way of saying sorry.

"Plus I could have done that a lot harder. I was going easy on you." Said Cleo as she pulled away from Tool.

"Sugar plum, I believe you on that." Replied Tool.

"You want me to do it again?" The angry in her was rising inside her again.

"Ok! Cleo, I believe you on that." As panic flashed across his face.

"That's better" Replied Cleo.

Soon after the rest of the team arrived, each taking it in turns to hug Cleo and Emily. Caesar was the last one to arrive however Emily and Cleo were surprised he turned up alone.

"Hey Caesar, where's Sam? Thought she was coming tonight." Asked Cleo as Caesar settled down with the rest of the team.

"Sorry girls. She was meant to be coming but unfortunately her ass is grounded."

"What happened?" Emily asked, almost sounding disgusted at Caesar for grounding their friend.

"Well Samantha thought it would be funny to tie her little brother to a chair as punishment for eating her last chocolate muffin." You could tell Caesar was pissed as he was using Sam's full name.

Both Cleo and Emily had to bite their lips to stop themselves for laughing. Sam had been threatening to punish her youngest brother for a while but they never thought she'd do something like this.

"So ladies, you'll just have to do without her tonight" As Caesar sat down beside Toll and Gunner.

"I'm sure we'll be ok without her for a night." Replied Cleo.

"Ladies, can you give us men a few moments alone while we talk shop. We'll call you when pizza's arrive in around 15 minutes." Tool asked the girls.

Emily and Cleo didn't need a bigger hint than that. Talking shop was code for "go away while we discuss the recent job or a new one that's coming up."

"Ok Just don't eat all the food before we come back!" Emily shouted over her shoulder as she and Cleo headed upstairs that led to Tool's apartment above the shop.

As the lift started taking them up towards the apartment, Cleo wished that Sam were here with them. Without Sam, Cleo would have to listen to Emily rattle on again about "The Bitch."

It was strange how three girls from different backgrounds could be best friends.

Sam was joint best friend with Emily to Cleo. Sam was tough as well and she could defend herself and fire a gun just like her and Emily but she was the luckiest one out of the three of them in Cleo's eyes. Sam was also the sanest one out the three friends. Emily had always said that it was because Sam hadn't been through as much shit in her life as her and Cleo, that she wasn't as fucked up as they were.

"You'll never believe what the Bitch has done now." Emily said as they entered Tool's living room in his apartment.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Hope you guys like it so far. A lot more action to come. Please follow and review


	2. Chapter 2

**Hope you guys like this story so far. The next chapter is where we will see it take off and the action start to happen. Please read and review**

"What did she do now?" Cleo asked Emily as she sat on Tool's sofa.

As she asked Emily, Cleo regretted asking but that's what good friends do. They listen to each other's problems.

"She found out that I filed the papers again. She went ballistic and threw a frying pan at my head. Luckily I ducked in time." Emily responded as she went and got a soda from Tool's personal fridge.

"Aw man that's rough. Can she do anything to stop it this time when you turn 16?"

"I don't know. She didn't say anything when she found out. She just threw the frying pan; I punched her in stomach and ran to my dad's house. Even he doesn't know what happened. He knows that I'm trying again though." Emily replied taking a gulp of 7UP.

"You gotta tell him tonight, Em." Cleo responded as she shifted to make room for Emily on the sofa.

"If you don't he'll be ambushed tomorrow when she comes looking for you or if she's waiting at his house right now for you. Your dad's always been on your side."

Emily went silent for a moment before answering Cleo.

"Urgh! I don't know. If I tell him it won't make a difference because I'm screwed no matter what happens. If she has any sense she won't fight it again this time. Your lucky you don't have to deal with this Cleo!"

As soon as Emily had said that, a look of hurt flashed across Cleo's face.

"Shit! Sorry Cleo I didn't mean it that way. I just meant… I don't know what I meant but I'm sorry." Emily replied trying to show Cleo just how sorry she was.

The problem with Emily was that she didn't always think before opening her fast talking mouth. Her words had cut through Cleo like a knife. Cleo knew what she meant but those words still hurt.

All three girls had their problems but Emily had the most shit going on.

She was the product of a friend with benefits relationship between her dad and her mom. They had both agreed to keep Emily and co parent together. It had worked really well for them. When Cleo and her mom used to visit, Emily's mom would also come with Toll Road. The two moms had become good friends and kept in contact when the men were away to organise outings with the girls. This is where Emily and Cleo's friendship had started and they got even closer after all these years.

That all changed when Emily's mom had met her new boyfriend when Emily was 9 and things went downhill fast. Her mom's new boyfriend got Emily's mom hooked on drugs and she started to neglect Emily.

By the time Emily was 14, she had 2 younger siblings but nobody had any idea who their fathers were and life at home was miserable. She and her mom only spoke when they were arguing and Emily was getting shouted at for not taking care of her siblings or just being in her mom's way. Emily knew the real reason though that her mom tolerated her and actually wanted to keep her in the house. Child support money. Toll Road sent money regularly to Emily's mom for Emily's clothes and everything else she needed. Emily's mom used it for drug money and money to live off. Emily never seen a penny of that money and when she told her dad he was furious. Instead of confronting her mom and making things worse, Toll Road set up a private bank account and gave Emily a credit card that she could use for herself. To this day, her mom still never knew about it and thought Toll only had money for child support.

Due to the shitty way Emily's mom treated her, they had no relationship. When Emily was younger she tried to forgive her mom when she shouted at her and occasionally hit her but as she got older, she couldn't do it anymore. As a result Emily now called her mom "The Bitch." When Cleo's mom used to visit New Orleans, she gave Emily the attention she needed and tried to help Emily's mom resist the drugs just like she had done with Gunner but their friendship was eventually lost over the years. Emily always considered Cleo's mom to be a second mom to her, and missed her being around to help her, just as much as Cleo did.

Toll Road had tried so many times to get full custody of Emily but every time he tried, Emily's mom managed to clean herself up enough to look like a caring mother. Her mom would also tell the judge that Toll Road worked away a lot meaning that Emily would be with her mom anyway and giving full custody to him was pointless.

Each time the Judge would agree with Emily's mom and she'd be stuck where she was. However every moment that she could, Emily spent it with Toll and actually spent most nights at his house. Emily and Toll were just as close as Cleo and Gunner were. It was another reason that Emily's mom wanted to keep Emily because it pissed her off how close Emily and Toll were.

Toll was like Gunner when it came to being a father. On the job he was deadly, always focused on the target and if you didn't know him he seemed to be a dangerous man. However when it came to his little girl, he was a huge push over when Emily asked for something and he was wrapped around her finger. Being fathers also seemed to bring Gunner, Toll and Caesar closer together as friends as well as team mates.

Maybe this time would be the time that Toll Road finally got custody of Emily.

Emily's words had hurt Cleo the most because Cleo had had a mother that would do anything to make sure Cleo was safe and happy and would put Cleo first before her own needs. She had always been close with her mom and they had been best friends. Every time Emily said she wished her mom were dead or wished she wasn't her mom, it stung Cleo because she would do anything to have her mom back or even just see her again.

Cleo definitely wouldn't change places with Emily for all the money in the world but she would change places with Sam in a heartbeat.

Cleo thought Sam was the lucky one because she had the one thing Cleo had always wanted. Her family together all the time and everyone happy. Sam's dad, Hail Caesar and her mom had been married for 18 years, had Sam and her siblings and all lived together happily like a family should.

It was the only thing Cleo had always wanted in her life. Her mom and dad loved each other more than anything. She could tell it by the way they used to look at each other and the way they would greet each other when they met after weeks apart. She had grown up in 3 cities; San Diego, Houston and New Orleans but in each city the Jensen family was never complete. Her mom's job kept her in Houston and traveling to San Diego to see her family. Her dad stayed in New Orleans with the team for his job and visited them as often as he could. He had only been to San Diego when Cleo was a baby to visit her but stopped when they moved to Houston. He never came to San Diego after that with them to visit her mom's sister as her Aunt Mandy hated him and didn't even try and be civil to him.

When the three of them were together it was the best time of Cleo's life. Her mom would watch nervously as Cleo and Gunner had a soft play karate match against each other. Then Gunner would go over to her mom and wrestle her to the ground, while Cleo tickled her mom into hysterics and her mom would be begging Gunner to free her. The two of them would shake their heads at her mom and say, "It's two Jensen's V.S One Williams." Once freed, Rebecca and Gunner would then turn on Cleo and it would be her turn to tickled and laugh hysterically. They would then all collapse laughing and Gunner would take them both in his arms and say, "The Viking always protects his women." He would then growl possessively and plant a kiss on Rebecca lips and Cleo's cheek and hug them both tighter to his chest.

That was a long time ago now. She lived with her dad in New Orleans now and her mom was dead.

"Don't worry about it Em, I know what you meant by it. Hopefully this time will be the time that the judge says yes. Plus you always know if things get bad and our dads are away, you can come and crash at mine." Replied Cleo giving Emily a light punch in the shoulder.

One of the rules Gunner had given Cleo had been that she couldn't have any friends stay over without his knowledge while he was away. Emily was an exception to that rule as she was like family to him as well and was always welcome in the Jensen household. Although it was weird when Emily called him Uncle Gunner. The same went for Cleo at Toll's house and both girls were always welcome to stay at Tool's apartment when their dads were away. The same rule also applied to Sam, but she had her mom at home to look after her and keep her company.

"Thanks Cleo. What would I do without you?" Emily replied as she mockingly rubbed her arm.

"Probably be in jail or in hospital." Cleo shot back.

Emily's mouth did get her into trouble at times and if Cleo wasn't there to hold her back, she would have been in jail or in hospital for getting attacked.

"That's true." Emily replied as she hugged Cleo.

"Congrats by the way for yesterday as well.1st place and moving up a belt is huge."

"Thanks Em. She was bigger than me but I won and that's all that matters. You should have seen me walking this morning. I looked like I was 70 years old I was that stiff and sore." Cleo laughed as she showed Emily a bruise on her forearm to prove her point.

"That would have been funny to see. I take it Uncle Gunner never made it back in time again?" Emily asked Cleo as she lowered her tone.

"No, he didn't." Cleo replied flatly.

"I'm sorry Cleo. I don't know why you let him off so easily though. I know it's only a small competition but you came in 1st place and it's like the 5th thing he's unintentionally missed this year. If it were me, I'd have said something by now." Emily replied to Cleo with a sympathetic tone in her voice.

"I know how many he's missed but at the end of the day, if he didn't do his job, then we wouldn't have any money for us to live on. I'm not a child any more and realise that adults have to make scarifies for other things. If dad doesn't make it to all my tournaments because he's working to get money, that's the way it is. The most important thing is that he came home safely again." Cleo replied.

As Cleo said it, she knew she only partly meant it. Each time she seen that her dad didn't show up to something she was disappointed and hurt. If he told her he wouldn't be able to make it, as he would defiantly not be back in time, it didn't hurt as much. Like she said to Emily, he was away a lot but it meant money for them and kept her dad focused on something but a little voice deep inside Cleo was going to expose how she really felt.

Cleo did all she was asked around the house for chores, did well in school, tried to stay out of trouble, never gave her dad any back talk and she never asked for anything. She did all of that without ever complaining and in return he couldn't show up to see her doing the things she loved to do. After every missed event Cleo took a few moments to remind herself of the reason why her dad hadn't made it and silence the voice that threatened to be appear. However lately the voice was getting stronger and was getting harder to control and very soon might rear its ugly head.

"I suppose your right. The only thing we want is for them to come home safe and alive." Emily replied as she gave Cleo a weak smile.

"Anyway how was dance practice this week? I've hardly seen you at all this week."

"Yeah it was ok. We're ready to perform on Monday morning but after that I'm not doing it anymore." Cleo replied.

"What? Why? You love dancing." Emily starred at her shocked and confused.

"I do but there's two reasons I want to leave the dance team." Cleo replied making sure Emily had her full attention.

"The first one is that I love soccer and karate more. With working on a Saturday, homework, spending time with you and Sam, chores around the house and other things, I realised that I had to give up something because it was getting too much."

Emily gave a nod in response to Cleo's first reason.

"Plus the second reason was that Leah Carter decided to join the team last week."

When Cleo finished telling Emily the other reason, Emily spat out her mouthful of soda onto the carpet in shock.

"What! Why the hell would she do that? She can't dance!" Emily said through coughing.

"I know she can't dance. I've seen her and it's painfully to watch. Remember though the queen bee of the school can get anything that she wants." Cleo replied.

"True. She does get everything that she wants at the school. Do you think she joined the team to get back at you some how? Emily asked sounding suspicious.

Leah Carter was the most popular girl in school and if she snapped her fingers she got what she wanted and when she wanted it. Emily, Cleo and Sam had challenged her more than a few times and didn't give her what she wanted. As a result, all three were targets to Leah if she wanted to humiliate someone or bully them.

The bad news was that Leah always lost, as the three girls never gave her the satisfaction that she wanted. That didn't stop Leah from trying though.

"Nah! I made the decision to leave the dance team before she even asked to be apart of it. If it was her plan she's failed again though. Dumb blonde bitch!" The anger rising in Cleo as she thought about Leah.

"I'm blonde." Emily replied flatly sounding angry with what Cleo said.

"Yeah but you're not dumb. Plus you're a fake blonde. At some point your hair was originally the same colour as mine." To prove her point, Cleo leaned over and grabbed a few strands of hair from Emily's head and could see where the natural colour still lingered underneath. A chocolate brown colour.

"Oh it's on now!" Emily lunged at Cleo and the two of them started to mockingly hit each other.

A knock at the door interrupted them and they stopped fighting to see who it was.

Without saying come in, the door opened and the mystery person stepped into the apartment.

'Excuse me ladies but Pizza will be here in 5 minutes if you want to re-join us" Toll replied with a cheesy grin on his face.

"Good cos I am starving!" Cleo said as she jumped off the sofa and towards the door.

Cleo was starving and would literally kill for food. All she had eaten was breakfast before work and a candy bar at the shop while she was working.

As Cleo reached the door where Toll was standing, she realised that Emily hadn't followed her and was still sitting on the sofa.

"You not hungry sweetheart?" Toll asked Emily. Normally if someone mentioned food, she was the first one up like Cleo had just done.

"Dad there's something I need to tell you." Emily replied looking scared and avoiding eye contact with Toll.

"I'll meet you guys downstairs." Cleo quickly said sensing that Emily was going to tell Toll what had happened earlier with her mom.

Cleo closed the door as Toll rushed over and sat beside Emily so she could tell him what had happened.

Cleo could tell the next month was going to be filled with phone calls and texts about what was happening with the custody case. Even though they had been down this road before, Cleo was ready to hear it all again and be a good friend to Emily and help her. She was going to need it.

Taking a deep breath, Cleo walked down the stairs to re join the rest of the crew. As she walked back over to them, her eyes met her dads and he winked at her. She winked back as a sigh that everything was ok and sat down beside Barney and Lee.

"Anyone want another beer?" Tool shouted from the kitchen that was opposite the area they used to chill and spent time together in.

Lee, Caesar and Gunner shouted yes to Tool's question.

"I'll take another diet soda please." Cleo shouted to Tool.

"You've got legs. Use em." Tool shouted back at Cleo from the kitchen.

"What? That's rude. You offered everyone else and you're already where the soda is!" A look of disbelief crossed her face as she shouted back. All the other guys we're trying to hide their laughter at what was happening behind Cleo and Tool.

"Yeah but these guys don't attack me and your meant to be the young fit one. So that's why."

Tool had never been like this before to Cleo and she was shocked. Normally he would say yes to her request but tonight she didn't know what to say. Tool walked back into the room with 4 beers.

"Oh chill Cleo. I was messing with you. Here's your soda." Tool said with a grin on his face and tossed a can of soda at Cleo.

"Du Menar Gamla jävel!" Cleo replied to Tool as she opened her soda. " _You mean old bastard"_

"I don't speak Swedish but I'm guessing that wasn't a good thing she said?" Tool asked as he turned to Gunner who was shocked at what Cleo just said.

"No it wasn't. Cleo what did we say about that the other day?" Gunner asked her.

"Jag är inte tillåtet att svära på svenska eller engelska. Jag är ledsen pappa. Jag är ledsen Tool." Cleo replied knowing her dad was annoyed at her because he used her full first name and didn't call her Cle or princess like he always did. " _I must not swear in Swedish or English. I'm sorry dad. I'm sorry Tool."_

Ever since the day Cleo was born, Gunner talked to her in Swedish and English, meaning she was bilingual in Swedish and English. It came in handy when she and Gunner wanted to talk privately with each other and other people were around. It also used to make her mom paranoid, as she had no idea what the two of them were saying. Her aunty Mandy hated it when Cleo talked in Swedish and would remind her that she was American and not Swedish. Although Cleo did speak Swedish around her aunt just to annoy her sometimes. Cleo and Gunner also tried to visit his sister in Sweden at least once a year and it helped Cleo to speak to her younger cousins who had very little English skills.

Gunner gave her a nod that said, "Ok but don't do it again" and turned back to Tool.

'She says she's sorry."

"That's great but can we all go back to speaking English so we can understand each other?" Lee asked taking a swig of his beer.

'Lee, you're the one who barley speaks English." Cleo shot back.

"Ok that does it!" Lee lunged at Cleo and had her in a headlock.

"I'm actually English unlike you, you little Swedish speaking American teenager. Want to take that back?" Lee asked Cleo while she was still in a headlock.

"Owe! Ok I'm sorry now let me go." Grunted Cleo as she tried to get Lee's arm off her neck and head.

Happy that she had apologised, Lee released her and then playfully gave her a one armed hug as she fixed her hair. Everyone one in the room was so focused on Lee and Cleo that no one noticed Emily and Toll coming back into the room. As Lee released Cleo and hugged her, Emily came up behind him and rubbed his big bald head causing his arms to fly up to his head in protective manner.

"Hey! Not the head, Em!"

"Sorry but I thought if I rubbed it I'd get good luck." Emily replied as she pulled up a chair and sat between Barney and Yang.

"Oh ha-ha! That joke never gets out." Lee replied mockingly laughing at Emily.

"I think there should be a new rule around here." Tool announced and everyone turned to look at him.

"Cleo and Emily are not allowed attack or beat any of us up. Insults are fine but no attacking. Also Cleo can't talk in Swedish unless it's to Gunner. Everyone agreed?"

"Agreed!" All of the expendables agreed at once with amusement on their faces.

"You guys take all the fun out of it." Emily said shouting upset.

"Plus now that Cleo's a brown belt, she can easily take any of you on."

"Wait I thought you were only a purple belt Cleo?" Barney asked confused.

"I was but as I won that competition last night, I got moved up to a brown belt." A triumphant look on her face as she explained how she moved up a belt.

All the expendables let our cheers and gave Cleo their congratulations. As everyone was saying their congratulations to Cleo, no one noticed the look of sorrow, shame and guilt that Gunner had on his face.

Going up a belt in karate was a big thing for a person to do and he hadn't been there to see it. He was a good father in the respect that he made sure Cleo had food to eat, a bed to sleep in, clothes to wear, and a good education and did his best to make sure she was safe. However Gunner felt he was a bad father in the respect that he wasn't there to see her win her tournaments that she took part in and how well she was progressing in the activities she did. He missed her do her first dance solo at her new school. He missed the day she scored her first goal in her new soccer team and the day she was named MVP. Last night was just another big thing he had missed.

Each time he apologised, Cleo would say that it was ok and that his work was more important as it kept money coming in for them. However each time Gunner could see how she really felt, as the upset showed in her eyes. Next time he would have to not promise her he would be there or just surprise her. He knew even if he didn't make it she would still be upset but at least she wouldn't get her hopes up. They had a very close father and daughter relationship and it would kill Gunner if he were the reason that relationship fell apart. If that happened he would also be breaking one of the many promises he made to the love of his life the night before they had put her in the ground.

Realising that with the amount of beer he had had, his emotions started to play up as he started to think of Rebecca. He quickly thought about the mission they had just been on to get his mind back on track and join the current conversation that the rest of the guys were having before anyone questioned his behaviour.

"Toll, you said food was going to be here soon. I'm starving!" Cleo said rubbing her tummy as it grumbled.

"Relax Miss Hungry, it will be here soon." Toll replied lowering his hands in a "calm down" motion.

"If I don't get fed soon, this monster's going to erupt." Cleo laughed as she pointed to her stomach, which grumbled again in response.

Tool looked like he was going to say something but a knock at the door interrupted them. Tool reluctantly got off his seat and went to see who it was.

Cleo was silently hoping it was the pizza and not some random person wanting a tattoo at this time of night and interrupting their family time.

Luckily it was the pizza guy and Tool wandered back into the room carrying at least half a dozen large pizza boxes.

"Already, ladies first." Tool replied as he set the pizzas down and let Cleo and Emily get the first slices.

"What ladies? There aren't any here!" Lee declared as the girls started to demolish their slices of pizza.

It was just after one in the morning when Cleo and Gunner walked through their front door.

The night had been a blast! After stuffing their faces with pizza, the rest of the night was spent reminiscing about memories, teasing each other and eventually a knife throwing contest which even Cleo and Emily took part in. Yang had been so drunk when he tried it, that he almost struck Barney but luckily Barney ducked in time. Cleo managed to get her knife right in the middle of the board and proudly yelled "Bull's-eye!" The whole team was shocked; especially Gunner but Lee had a different look. He had been secretly showing Cleo how to properly handle and throw a knife and tonight he felt so proud of his adopted niece.

Caesar was the first to leave, followed by Lee, and then Yang. Both Toll and Gunner could have stayed longer but Cleo and Emily were both nearly asleep on the couch and they decided to call it a night, leaving just Barney and Tool at the shop.

Cleo woke up enough to say goodbye to the remaining men and Emily and drive the truck home safely. Also seeing what stage Gunner was at made her wake up her up quicker.

Even though Gunner had given up the drugs, he still enjoyed drinking but never went on a bender like he did when her mom died. As a result Cleo had made a list of stages at how drunk Gunner was.

Stage 1 – Relaxed and calm

Stage 2 – giggly and laughing all the time

Stage 3 – Slurred words and emotional

Stage 4 – Losing the ability to think clearly

Stage 5 – complete loss of control of body and mind. In this stage no one could stop him from doing whatever it was he wanted to do. Not even Cleo.

Luckily for Cleo, tonight he was a stage 3. The stage she could handle.

"Ok, I'm going straight to bed, I can barley keep my eyes open." Cleo half said and half yawned as she leaned against the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

"Night dad."

With another yawn, Cleo pushed off the kitchen counter and turned to head up stairs to bed. However as she turned, Gunner grabbed her gently by her wrist, pulled her back and crushed her to his chest in a big bear hug.

After the initial shock of being spun around and crushed into her dad's chest, she wrapped her arms around his torso and relaxed in his arms as he rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"You are the joint best thing that's ever happened to me. I love you so much but I have no idea why you love me. I'll try and be a better father. I love you my little princess." Gunner murmured as he still held her tightly in his arms.

"I do love you dad and I always will. You're the best dad already and I wouldn't change you in any way." Cleo replied with a shaky breath and trying to not let her emotions show now. She knew that her dad loved her and he knew she loved him but the alcohol was making him get emotional tonight.

It always hurt Cleo when Gunner said he was a bad father or said he would be a better father. In her eyes, he was a great father. If she needed something important, she got it, she had a roof over her head, clothes on her back, she knew the responsibilities of chores and he was there to give her emotional support when she needed it. Also due to their close relationship, if Cleo ever felt down or upset, a hug from her dad always seemed to be what she needed to feel better.

"No I'm not." Gunner mumbled as he kissed the top of her head.

Cleo broke the hug and looked up at Gunner.

"Dad you are. It's just the booze talking. Now this time I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning. Night." Cleo said in a serious tone. She knew that it was mostly the booze talking and he would be fine in the morning.

"Night princess." Gunner replied as Cleo reached the stairs.

Before climbing the stairs, Cleo quickly tuned back to face him and gave him a smile and then headed upstairs.

After giving her teeth a brush and using the bathroom, she made her way to her room and was finally looking forward to sleep and not having to set her alarm. As she passed Gunner's room there was no sound coming from it, meaning he was downstairs having a final drinking before going to bed. It was something he did after they came home from Tool's or sometimes after returning from a job. It was like he needed some alone time before going to bed to think about whatever was on his mind. She guessed it had something to do with her mom or that he had missed her tournament on Friday. Either way, Cleo was just happy he was home safe and sound from his latest job.

Once in her room, Cleo changed into her pyjamas and climbed into bed. Finally content and relaxed for the first time since Gunner had left on his latest job.

"Thanks for bringing him home safely to me again mom. Please make sure he's ok. He just seems a bit off lately." Cleo said slightly to herself and pretending that her mom could hear her.

Each time Gunner came home safely, Cleo would thank her mom for watching over him and making sure he came home. She knew her dad could defend himself but she liked to think that her mom was watching over them and making sure that they both still had each.

With a final deep breath, Cleo closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep, knowing tomorrow was a new day.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Hope you like chapter 2. please follow and leave a review. Chapter 3 next


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi Guys Hope you are all enjoying this story so far. Please read and leave a little comment. Update soon. x**

 _All Cleo could see around her was blackness but in the distance there was a small glimmer of light. Cleo made to move towards it however she quickly realised that she was surrounded by water and she started to swim towards the light in the distance to see what it was._

 _As she got closer to the light, Cleo let out a shriek of shock. When she got to the light, she saw her mom, Rebecca. She looked exactly the same as Cleo remembered her; her almost black hair swaying in the water, her chocolate brown eyes gleaming and the same smile that showed how beautiful she was. It made a huge smile spread across Cleo's face at seeing her again. However the smile quickly vanished from Cleo's face._

 _All of a sudden her mom started choking and couldn't breathe! Her arms were flying all over the place, trying to grab something and swim to the surface wherever it was._

 _Cleo reacted instinctively and swam further to her mom and grabbed her hand. It calmed her mom down but Cleo could feel her hand slipping, losing grip on her mom's hand._

 _"_ _Help me sweetheart!" Her mom shouted out._

 _"_ _I'm trying! You're slipping!" Cleo shouted back._

 _As soon as Cleo said that, her mom's hand slipped out of Cleo's grip and her mom began to sink further below in the water. Cleo followed and swam further down to rescue her mom but each time Cleo moved her arms, her mom seemed to think further and faster and Cleo couldn't catch her._

 _"_ _MOM!" Cleo screamed, as her mom kept getting further away._

 _She swam for what seemed like eternity to try and reach her mom but eventually her mom sank into the darkness and out of sight._

 _"_ _NO!" Cleo screamed._

 _Cleo continued to swim further down but no matter how much she kept swimming, she couldn't find her mom._

 _The light that had been following Cleo while she swam went out all of a sudden and with a jolt she woke up and sat upright in her bed._

Cleo sometimes had nightmares about her mom dying and each time the outcome was the same. She had this dream where she couldn't get to her mom and she drowned in the darkest part of the ocean. In the other dream, Cleo would be on the research boat, hanging over the side trying to pull her mom up, but the water would always claim her mom and she died.

Cleo thought about her mom everyday but it seemed to be whenever she thought a lot about her, that these nightmares would occur. Each time getting worse and scaring her more.

Cleo couldn't get the vivid picture of her mom out her mind. It was almost as if she wasn't dead and the situation was real. She would give up everything she had just to see and hug her mom one last time. She never got to say goodbye to her mom, which was what hurt Cleo the most about the whole situation when she died and that she still didn't have that closure.

Glancing at her bedside table, the digital clocking showed that it was only 2:45am. It felt like the dream had gone on for hours but she had only been asleep for just over an hour.

Cleo started to sob with her heart still racing and her body shaking. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them to hug them tighter to her chest, with her forehead resting on top of her knees. Soon the sobbing turning into full on crying and tears streaming down her face.

A few seconds later, just like he always did, Gunner came rushing through her bedroom door. He had heard her scream and knew that she was having another one of her nightmares. Even though he was still tipsy from the drink, he knew instinctively what to do. He went over to the other side of the bed, sat down on the mattress, scooped Cleo up in his arms and held her to comfort her.

"Shh. it's ok. It was just a dream, Cle." Gunner murmured into her ear as he stroked hair.

"Shh. it's ok. I'm here."

Cleo clung to him like she used to do when she was a child and was scared. Always wanting daddy when she was scarred and never her mommy. It was strange that she was now crying for her dad because she couldn't have her mom. His vest was becoming wet with her tears and Gunner felt her body shaking in his arms and he could hear her heart beating so fast that it sounded like it was going to jump out of her chest. It must have been a bad one this time.

"Tysta min lilla prinsessa. Du är trygg med pappa." Gunner murmured in her ear. " _Hush my little princess. You are safe with daddy."_

After Cleo started having her nightmares, Gunner realised that when he spoke in Swedish to her, it seemed to calm her quicker and settle her back to sleep.

Tonight was no different. As soon as Gunner finished talking, Cleo let out a big deep breathe and her breathing was slowly going back to normal. Her body finally stopping shaking as she relaxed in Gunner's arms and her tears stopped.

Cleo stayed clung to his chest for a few more moments, not wanting to leave the comfort of her dad's arms.

After another big deep breath, and after a few more moments had passed, she untangled herself from Gunner's arms and laid back on the right hand side of the bed, on her side with her back to Gunner.

"I'm sorry" Cleo whispered softly as she closed her eyes and tried to get back to sleep.

Gunner didn't know if she was saying sorry to her mom for not saving her in her dream or if she was saying sorry for waking him up. She said it every time she had a nightmare but Gunner didn't want to ask why encase it made her feel even more guilty about her nightmares. She had no reason to feel guilty either way. She wasn't responsible for her mom's death and it was a father's responsibility to comfort his child if they woke up screaming in the middle of the night.

Gunner sat still on the other side of the bed and waited until she fell asleep again before going back to his own bed. It wasn't that Cleo needed him to stay but he wanted to make sure she was settled before he left again. After a few moments she started snuffling gently in her sleep, signaling that she was asleep again.

Gently Gunner got up off the bed and left the room. Closing the door slowly behind him.

It killed him to see her like this and knowing the only thing he could do was hold her until she calmed down. He and Cleo had always been very close with each other but Rebecca and her had been even closer. The two of them lived together for the majority for Cleo's life, Gunner visiting when he could. They had never fought with each other and Rebecca was also Cleo's best friend. Gunner had almost destroyed himself when he lost Rebecca but he couldn't imagine what Cleo was going through. Even though he wasn't always there at her tournaments, he hoped he was giving her the support she needed when it came to her grief with her mom.

With a final deep breath of his own, Gunner climbed into his own bed and soon fell asleep himself.

Cleo woke up the next morning feeling totally refreshed. She had had the best dream where she was a professional soccer player in the NWSL and was engaged to JJ Watt. It had been the best dream and Cleo didn't want it to end.

Although it had been a good dream, Cleo could still remember her first dream, which resulted in her crying like a baby in her dad's arms.

She knew she wasn't responsible for her mom's death and that it was a weather storm that caused her mom's death. However no matter how often Cleo told herself that, the nightmares still kept coming and got worse each time. The worst part about the nightmares wasn't that her mom died or that she couldn't save her mom. The worst part was that her mom was so clear in her dreams and that it was like she was alive again. When she jolted awake, the image was still fresh in her mind and always made her cry, as all she wanted was a cuddle from her mom.

After the sadness passed from her nightmares, the guilt then followed. Cleo knew that when she screamed in her dreams, she was also screaming out loud in reality, which then caused her dad to come rushing through to her room and hold her until she calmed down. He cradled her like he used to do when she was little, stroking her hair until she stopped crying and was ready to go back to sleep. When he spoke in Swedish to Cleo, it seemed to calm her down a lot quicker than anything else.

From the day she was born, Cleo was always daddy's little girl and clearly had a favourite parent when she was younger. If either her mom or dad had to help Cleo or take her somewhere, it was always Gunner she chose to help her. Her mom also told her that when Cleo was younger, she would scream and cry for Gunner as soon as he left Houston to go back to New Orleans. Only calming down, when he called to say he was home and he would be back soon. As she got older, she didn't scream or cry for him anymore when he left but she still remained daddy's little girl. They used to have secret conversations in Swedish with each other and often pretend they were talking about her mom.

When her dad used to comfort her when she was little, he never spoke in English and it was always Swedish. He would always hum a Swedish lullaby to her and it always worked to get her to sleep. Cleo guessed that this was the reason she calmed down quicker when he held her and spoke in Swedish. A reminder that she still had her dad; the person who loved her no matter what, who would always protect her and keep her safe like he had done since the day she was born.

Cleo felt guilty for two reasons when she had her nightmares. The first one was because she assumed that he had his own nightmares about her mom. When she died he went off the rails, which resulted in Cleo being whisked away to San Diego until he got back on track. When you loose the love of your life and forget your daughter, it must give you nightmares as well. The second reason Cleo felt guilty was for waking him up when she screamed. He should be able to sleep all night and not be woken up by the stupid screams of someone else.

With a deep breathe, Cleo decided to close her eyes and see if she could get her second dream back again but as she closed her eyes, she opened them quickly again.

Breakfast!

When Cleo didn't have school or anything else to get up for, she loved nothing more than just lying in bed and being lazily for an hour or so before getting up. The only thing that was guaranteed to get her up right away was her favourite meal of the day. Breakfast!

Just as she had closed her eyes again, the smell of sausages cooking had hit her nose and she abandoned the thought of trying to get her favorite dream back.

Jumping out of bed, Cleo grabbed her dressing gown, put it on over her pajamas and headed down stairs to investigate further on where the delicious smell was coming from.

As she entered the kitchen, Cleo found out where the smell was coming from.

Gunner was standing at the stove. A packet of store bought pancakes was on the kitchen counter next to the stove and by the smell of it, he was frying bacon, sausage and eggs to go with the pancakes.

One of Cleo's favourite breakfasts.

Sensing that Cleo was behind him, Gunner turned around and laughed when he seen her.

"You know with your amazing sense of smell, you could replace the sniffer dogs at airports, Cle." Gunner said with a huge smile on her face.

"I know dad. You tell me that all the time. It's not my fault I love food so much." Cleo replied as she hopped onto a bar stool at the breakfast bar.

"I don't suppose you made enough for me as well?"

"Yeah don't worry I did. I knew that when I started cooking, the smell would wake you up and you would come looking to eat it. I made enough for both of us." Gunner replied as he cracked another egg into the pan.

"Sweet! Now can you hurry up because I'm starving." Cleo asked with pleading eyes.

"Yes, your highness." Gunner replied as he bowed in front of Cleo, pretending to be her servant.

In response Cleo chuckled and went to get juice, glasses and cutlery for them while Gunner finished cooking.

A few moments later Gunner placed a plate in front of her, then grabbed his own plate and joined Cleo at the breakfast bar.

"We never got a chance to properly catch up yesterday. What's been happening this week since I've been gone? Any gossip?" Gunner asked taking a mouthful of food and chewing noisily.

Cleo screwed up her face up at what he said. "Dad that sounds so weird when you say that. Please don't say that again."

"Ok, sorry. What has been happening then?"

"Not a lot. Just school, dance prep, soccer practice, seen the girls and the competition on Friday. A pretty boring week." Cleo said through chewing her food.

"Sounds hectic to me in 5 days. After we've finished, I'll see your trophy and the video that you've got as well." Gunner replied smiling at Cleo.

"Yeah I almost forgot about the video. I have it somewhere." Cleo said as she smiled back.

"Cle I'm sorry I didn't make it again. The job took longer than we thought and we just couldn't get back any quicker. I'll make it up to you."

"Dad it's ok. Your home safe and alive. That means more to me than some karate competition ever will." Cleo replied smiling back at him.

Once again she had forgiven him and said it was ok that he missed an event. However as Gunner could read her like a book and could see the hurt showing her eyes when he brought up the fact that we didn't make it on Friday night. He could tell that she wasn't fine and was disappointed that he never made. When he told her he'd make it up to her, he meant it this time. No more promises or saying "I'll be there." Starting today, he was only asking the time and place, so that he could make it if he could and surprise her.

Gunner finished chewing and was going to reply to Cleo but she spoke first.

"Oh and Aunt Mandy phoned twice as well this week."

Gunner choked on the orange juice he was currently drinking when Cleo spoke and ended up coughing uncontrollably. After a moment, he managed to stop coughing and get the ability to talk back.

"Sorry about that Cle." Gunner said as he cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"What did she want?"

"She said she would try to come and visit soon, asked how I was and then she started trashing you again and calling you every name under the sun as usual. Does she have to come and visit?" Cleo asked with the angry rising in her voice.

"Come on, don't be like that. Just because she doesn't like me doesn't mean you should be mean to her." Gunner forced himself to say to Cleo.

Ever since the day he had met Mandy, which was also the day Cleo was born, she had instantly disliked him. He was sitting on the hospital bed, with his arm around Rebecca and the two of them were happily gazing at their newborn daughter. Mandy had come in the room and as soon as her eyes met Gunner's, they were filled with hate and disgust. He had tried to be nice to her but Mandy wanted nothing to do with him. Throughout the years Rebecca had been the one to keep Mandy from showing how she really felt about Gunner, although she was still rude to him and only spoke to him if she needed to. Gunner didn't really care what she thought and was only nice to her for Rebecca and Cleo's sake. Now that Rebecca was dead, Mandy didn't hold back and every time she seen him, she made it perfectly clear that she despised him. Gunner would love nothing more than to cut her out of his and Cleo's life and never see her again. However at the end of the day, she was still Cleo's aunty and Rebecca would still want her to be apart of Cleo's life, regardless if he and Mandy got along or not. If Rebecca and Mandy had hated each other, Gunner would have cut contact with her along time ago and saved himself the misery of her visits and phone calls.

"I know that, but you have no idea what it's like when she bad mouths you. She's never got the chance to know you and would know you're a good dad." Cleo replied as the anger was still rising in her voice.

"Cle, it doesn't matter wither she likes me or not. I'm just the guy who knocked up her sister and father of her niece. She loves you and you're pretty much the only thing she has left of your mom. Remember she was also the one who cared for you while I was MIA. Just try and ignore what she says about me because you know she's never liked me." Gunner replied trying to ease Cleo's anger.

Cleo sighed as she took another mouthful of food. "Argh, fine but can I tell her some fake excuse so she doesn't stay longer than she needs to?"

"Hell yes and also say that the spare room is unavailable and she'll have to stay in a hotel." Gunner replied.

"Agreed! I'll tell her next time she calls."

Gunner gave her another smile, agreeing with what they had discussed and they both went back to eating. Gunner was happy that they had moved any from the topic of him missing yet something else Cleo had done. How much more disappointment could she bare?

Cleo finished eating first and looked up at Gunner suspiciously. Gunner had his head down but looked up at Cleo when he realised she had remained still for a moment.

"So?" Cleo asked intriguingly.

"So..What?" Gunner asked sounding nervous and intrigued at the same time.

Cleo was still eyeing him suspiciously. "When are you leaving again? It was so obvious last night when Tool said "leave us to talk shop'".

Gunner's expression dropped as soon as Cleo had asked him that. He had just got back 2 days ago and hoped to wait until tonight to tell her that they were leaving again in a few days.

"You don't miss anything do you?" Gunner said trying to avoid the question.

"You're stalling." Cleo replied.

"Tuesday afternoon."

The look of Cleo's face was a look of pure sadness and dread as she dropped her gaze and looked down at the floor.

He hated it when he told Cleo he was leaving again. The sadness in her eyes cut him to the bone every time he did it. He knew she could take care of herself in feeding and cleaning herself but knew that she worried encase he never came back home again. They both knew there was no guarantee he would come home alive and that was the reason Cleo hated it when he left every time. He'd defied the odds and escaped death so many times over the past 15 years that it was a miracle he was still alive and only had a few scars to show for it. Every time he left on a job, they both knew it could be the last time that Cleo would see him, just like what happened to her mom.

After Gunner had gotten Cleo back and got his life on track, he had thought about retiring from the mercenary business. He knew that Cleo needed him now more than ever and he was all she had left. The problem was that he didn't know how to do anything else except kill people. He would have had to spend his days at the gym, gun range, clean the house, garden and hang around Tool's shop. Even when they didn't have a job to do, Gunner found himself bored of his usual routine after a week or so and knew that he needed his lifestyle to keep him on track and to focus on something other than Cleo. He had talked about it with her as well. She had admitted that she would like for him to retire so he was safe but also agreed that when a long time went without a job, he was bored and became slightly irritable because he needed to do something.

"Cle, look at me."

Reluctantly Cleo raised her head up again and her eyes met her dads.

"It'll be quick though. We're just doing a quick trip to scoop out the place and decide if we should take the job or not. 2 day trip maximum"

There was silence for a moment while Cleo processed what he had just said. However no matter what he said, she would always worry until he walked back through the front door.

The dread and sadness in her eyes slowly faded as he reassured her

"That doesn't sound to bad. Like always though, you come back to me in one piece and breathing ok?"

"Just like I always say Cle. Nobody messes with the Viking." Gunner reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and a half smile to emphasize his point.

Cleo squeezed his hand back and gave him a weak smile in return, knowing that that there was no guarantee he would be back in two days. Regardless if it was just a 2-day trip to scoop out an area.

"I know dad but it doesn't stop me worrying. I will always worry no matter how often the Viking conquers."

"I know princess. You just gotta trust me and know that besides taking out the target, getting back to you is my number one priority." Gunner said once again squeezing her hand.

All Cleo did in response was to give him another half smile. No matter what he said, she would still worry.

"Anyway we still have another day and half before I leave and it's to early in the morning to be worrying about this shit. What's the plan for today then?" Gunner asked trying to change the subject again as quickly as he could.

"Your right, it's way to early to be talking about this." Cleo replied happily that they were changing the subject.

"I'm meeting a few of my soccer team mates for some additional practice at 2 but after that I have nothing else to do. What's your plan?"

A confused look crossed Gunner's face at Cleo's plan. "I thought you had practice tomorrow night?"

"I do dad. It's just we have a match coming up soon and we just want to be ready to win it, so we're practicing more. Not the full team, just a few of us" Cleo replied.

"Well practice does make perfect. Lee, Caesar and I are going to go over some stuff for the next job."

Cleo looked at him puzzled now. "If it's only a 2 day job scouting why are you going over stuff?"

"You always need to be prepared Cle. No matter what you think or are told, be prepared just encase."

This made Cleo go back to feeling worried even more now. He had just told her not to worry as it was a 2-day job to scout out the place but by the sounds of it, they were gearing up for another huge mission. Was he lying just to ease her worrying?

Gunner sensed this and quickly went back to change the subject again.

"Anyway, how about I drop you off for your practice, pick you up when you're done and we can have dinner and movie night. Sound good?"

"Sounds good to me but the movie is a joint decision and not just what you want. Deal?" Cleo replied and stuck her hand out in front of her dad for him to shake.

"Deal! Just let me know when your ready and we'll go." Gunner replied shaking her hand.

The rest of the day passed pretty quickly.

After they had finished breakfast, Cleo had shown Gunner her trophy and video of her winning. He was so proud of what she had done and again promised he wouldn't miss the next one, although Cleo only half believed him.

Gunner had met Lee and Caesar at the hanger after dropping Cleo off at soccer practice. They got everything ready to go for their next job, meaning the last of their free time could be spent doing whatever they wanted to do and not prepare at the last moment.

As promised Gunner picked Cleo up when she was done with practice. Although he was a little disappointed as when he arrived to pick her up, she was already done with practice. He had hoped she was still on the field and he would be able to see her practice instead of just seeing a video or hearing about it like he always did.

Maybe one day that would be the case.

Once home, they ordered Chinese food and they agreed to watch fast and furious 6 as a joint decision. Gunner didn't want to watch that movie but Cleo's puppy eyes had once again broke Gunner and he had to give into her choice.

When those eyes came out, he was hopeless to say no to her request. Rebecca used to get so mad at him for it. Cleo would ask her for something, which Rebecca would then say no to. Cleo would scowl at her mom and then run and find Gunner, look at him with those eyes and she got what she wanted. Gunner did genuinely feel guilty about it but he just couldn't help himself when it came to his little girl. He loved Rebecca more than anything in the world but Cleo was the apple of his eye and she used to be completely convinced that the sun set and rose with him.

Hopefully it would stay that way and he wasn't slowly destroying their relationship.

The whole day had been perfect and it was finished off perfectly with the two of them just chilling with each other and enjoying their personal family time that they both enjoyed.

Meanwhile in an old run down warehouse, in unknown location, a man stood hunched over a computer staring at three pictures on it.

"Where ever you are expendables, enjoy the last few days of your lives. Soon I'll have ruined at least three of your lives you evil bastards!" the man spat at the computer.

On the computer there were three pictures of teenage girls on it, with their names under it.

Samantha Alexandra Caesar

Emily Maria Road

Cleo Ariel Sigrid Jensen

"Sorry girls but your daddies and uncles have taken the bait, meaning your lives will be coming to an end soon."

The man had an evil smile spread across his face and threw his head back in an evil laugh. His plan was finally coming together and he would have his revenge on the expendables.

TO BE CONTINUED

 **SO WHO IS THIS MYSTERY MAN THAT'S PLANNING TO DESTROY THE TEAM AND THE GIRLS? PLEASE READ AND REVIEW X**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's another chapter. Hope you like it. Please leave a review.**

Cleo lay awake in her bed, starring mindlessly at the ceiling and unable to get to sleep. It was Monday night and tomorrow her dad was leaving for the next job.

They had said their goodbyes before Cleo had gone to bed and he promised he would see her soon. They had hugged for what seemed like an eternity and at one point she had almost wanted to beg him to stay, where she knew he was safe. Gunner had also seemed reluctant to let her go as well. Wanting to also stay with his little girl and give her the reassurance that he was safe.

Gunner had offered to take her to school and say goodbye then but Cleo knew that it was easier to do it this way. If he dropped her off at school, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from sobbing like a baby, which she had been doing in her bed for the last hour. Not full on crying, just little sobs that escaped as the worry and angst started to fully take over her mind and occupying every thought she had, until he returned.

Cleo's phone started to vibrate on her bedside table. She reached over and picked it up and seen the message that was sent to the group chat message that she had with Emily and Sam.

Sam: "You guys sleeping?"

Emily: "No."

Cleo: "Me either."

Emily: "I'm to worried to sleep. I know it's only a two day trip but they've said that before and don't come home for weeks."

Sam: "Me too."

Cleo: "Me three. It gets harder every time doesn't it?"

Sam: "Yeah it does. They've all come back in one piece so far. Let's hope the streak isn't broken now."

Emily: "If I lost my dad, my life would be over. The only good thing would be gone. Except for you guys of course."

Cleo: "Seconded. If my dad doesn't come back, I'll be a one-way flight to San Diego before you could say expendable.

Sam: "I'd be hurt but I would have to spend the rest of my life comforting my mom. She'd be devastated."

Before replying, Cleo thought about what Sam had said. All three girls were close with their dads and got worried about them, but what about Sam's mom? She was the only one who was married to an expendable – Lee had Lacey but they were only dating. What was it like knowing that the love of your life may never come back?

Cleo vaguely remembered when she was little that her mom used to get nervous and panicky at certain times for no apparent reason to Cleo. Cleo used to ask her what was wrong and each time her mom would reply, "It's ok sweetheart. Mommy just doesn't feel good just now but everything will be ok." As she got older and she found out what her dad did, she realised her mom got in that state because she hadn't heard from her dad in a certain time and that something could be wrong. However each time he did always come back and her mom would run to him and just hold him in a hug for ages. Glad to have her man back safe with her and glad that Cleo still had her dad.

It was ironic though that he had never worried about her mom not coming home and in the end she was the one who didn't come home.

Cleo: "Yeah it must be harder for you mom. I'm going to try and sleep because unlike you losers, I also have karate tomorrow night. See you in the morning."

Cleo didn't bother to see their replies and insults and she did actually feel sleepy now that she done her sobbing and spoken to the girls.

"Mom, I know he's only away for two days but make sure he comes back safe and live."

Cleo said this out loud to herself as usually in the hopes that somewhere her mom heard her. She knew she probably didn't but it made her feel better.

Cleo sat on the couch in the living room nervously chewing her nails, something she only did when she was worried about something.

Tonight she was worried for two reasons.

The first reason was that the state final for the New Orleans Jester's under 18's girl's team had been moved to tomorrow. Normally this wouldn't bother Cleo. She had called Paul and said she couldn't work and he was fine. She'd then texted Heather and said even though it was her turn to drive to work she couldn't. Again Heather was also fine with this. Cleo was nervous because at the game there would be talent scouts looking to offer scholarships. She was a great player but if someone was watching her to decide if she was good enough to play professional, it could affect her game. Cleo loved soccer and was still debating wither or not to go professional or choose a different career path.

Would she be lucky to get spotted and earn a scholarship to play at a major university at only 16?

The second reason she was worried, was because it was Friday night and her dad wasn't home yet. The expendables were not always on time for getting back from their job but this time they had all seemed relaxed and confident it would be a 2 day maximum trip. It was now day three and Cleo's worried thoughts were reappearing.

"That girl should not be aloud to be an actress. If that's acting, it's painful." Sam said who sitting beside Cleo on the couch.

Sam's mom and her siblings had decided to drive upstate to a theme park this weekend as a treat for her younger sister doing so well in school. Unfortunately Sam was still grounded and wasn't aloud to go. Although she wasn't that bothered as it meant she got a break from her mom and siblings too. After much pleading and begging, she had convinced her mom to let her stay with Cleo instead of her uncle's house and the two of them were now sitting on the sofa watching a film in their pyjamas. Although Cleo wasn't watching it as she was too preoccupied.

'What? Oh yeah she's terrible. She needs to stick to singing." Cleo replied.

"She's not a singer. What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, never mind." Cleo replied.

Sam leaned over to the coffee table and hit pause on the DVD remote. "You ok? You haven't been yourself all day."

"Yeah I'm fine." Cleo replied still biting her nails.

"No your not. Is it about the soccer thing again?"

Cleo gave a nod in response.

"You've got nothing to worry about." Sam replied.

"I've seen you play and your amazing. Even better than some woman In the NWSL. You'll be fine and if the scouts can't see that, it's their loss. When they see you at the draft pick, they'll say, "Oh shit, we should have given that girl a scholarship!" Just relax and play like you normally do and you will get a scholarship."

Cleo took a big sigh before answering Sam. "I guess your right. I know I'm good at playing and playing in front of large crowds doesn't bother me, but just knowing there's people there who can judge me and decide my future in 90 minutes is scaring the shit out of me."

"Do you know what they look like?" Sam asked.

"No"

"Well then just focus on scoring the goals. You could be looking at a man in a suit thinking he's the scout but some lady in shorts and t-shirt could be the scout. Just try and forget their there and focus on being the best forward/midfielder that you are." Sam replied.

Cleo sat for a moment and thought about what Sam had said.

Cleo knew that she was a good player and she had played in front of large crowds before. She loved the roar of the crowd and when people sometimes chanted her name, it gave her such a buzz. The talent scouts could come on a bad day and not see all the work Cleo had put in since she joined the jesters last year. Sam was right. All she had to do was focus on the game and forget they were there. Focus on the ball!

"Thanks Sam. I needed that." As Cleo turned and smiled at Sam.

"That's what friends are for my dear. Now can we please get back to the movie now?" Sam replied.

"Yeah and now I might actually be able to see what's happening in it." Cleo replied to Sam and both girls laughed at each other.

Cleo reached over and grabbed the remote to turned the DVD back on. As she was about to hit the play button, a car pulled up outside the house. It sounded like it had been going 100 miles per hour and screeched to a halt. They had closed the living room curtains earlier and couldn't see who was there.

Both girls instinctively got down on the floor, crawled and hid out of sight and behind something.

No car had ever screeched to a halt like that before in front of the house before and it could only mean something bad. When their dads had taught them weaponry, they also shown them basic moves to protect themselves. Lesson one was get down on the ground, out of sight and get behind something that could shield you.

Cleo had crawl over to the door that lead to the stairs and was hiding behind a cabinet that easily concealed her. Sam had crawled in the other direction and was hitting behind the sofa.

"We don't have any guns," Sam mouthed to Cleo.

"I know." Cleo mouthed back and then put a finger to her lips, signalling them to stay quiet. Sam nodded in response.

The car door opened and the occupier slammed it shut before running up to the front door. Who ever it was, was making no attempts to be quiet.

"Did you lock the doors?" Sam mouthed to Cleo, suddenly panicking encase the person could just walk in and attack them.

"Yeah." Was all Cleo could mouth back as she was shitting herself right now and didn't know what was going to happen.

Where was her dad when she needed him?

Whoever was at the door tried to open it but found it was locked. Both girls' hearts were beating so fast and nearly jumping out of their chests.

The person then knocked on the door several times. Then came a voice that the girls were both relieved and angry to hear.

"Hey Sugarplum are you in there? Samantha you there doll?"

Breathing a huge sigh of relief they both got up from their hiding places and Cleo went to open the door for Tool. Dropping the candlestick she had grabbed just case she needed something to hit the intruder with.

Cleo unlocked the door and Tool came charging in. "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to give us a heart attack?" Cleo was shaking slightly as she was both angry and relieved at who was at the door.

"Sorry Sugarplum didn't have time to call." Tool replied.

Tool had a look of worry and angst in his eyes that Cleo had never seen before. Something had to be wrong.

"Listen to me carefully. You are going to spend the night at my shop tonight. Grab a jumper and let's go." Tool said to the girls.

They could tell this was no joke and something was going on but both were to scared to ask what happened. Sam and Cleo shared a quick look at each other and then went to get what they needed. Cleo ran upstairs to her bedroom and grabbed her red baggie hoodie and put her converse on her feet. The whole time she had muttering to herself over and over again with tears threatening to fall at anytime.

"Please don't be dead dad. Please daddy."

Was today the day they had all been dreading? Tool coming to collect her and tell her that her dad was dead. If he was injured, Cleo could cope with that but not him dying. When she lost her mom, it was the worst thing that she had ever gone through. Even though Gunner was AWOL after her death, knowing that he was still alive gave Cleo the hope not to completely shut down and fall apart.

It would be worse now if he died. Both parents gone and only left with memories. If he died as well, it would mean moving back permanently to San Diego and losing the expendables, Sam and Emily. Her second family would be gone to.

"Man up you wimp!" Cleo said out loud to herself.

She was getting ahead of herself. Tool hadn't said they were dead and he surely wouldn't have taken them back to his shop to tell them or rushed up to the house in such a big hurry.

Cleo pulled herself out of her thoughts and ran back downstairs to join Tool and Sam. When she got to the living room, they weren't there. Turning all the lights off, she realised that they must be waiting at the front door for her. Cleo turned all the lights off in the kitchen and went to the little shoe room that led to the front door.

Tool gave a half weak smile when he seen her. "Ok. Let's go. Sugarplum lock the door and both stay close till we get to the car."

Tool stepped aside to let Cleo out first so she could lock the door. Tool and Sam followed her out and waited for her to lock the door. Cleo tried to do it as quickly as she could but her hands were shaking badly and it took a lot longer than she meant it to be. Eventually she managed to lock the door and the three of them walked quickly to Tool's car, both staying as close as they could do him, but had no idea why.

Tool jumped into the driver's seat, while Sam jumped into the back seat and Cleo was riding shotgun. Tool drove away just as fast as he approached the house and they set off. After a few moments driving, Cleo realised that they weren't heading for the shop but in a totally different direction.

"Where are we going?" Cleo asked as she turned to face him.

"One more person we have to get first." Tool replied without even looking at her.

As soon as he spoke, Cleo knew exactly who they were getting.

Emily

If it was to do with the expendables of course Emily would be getting picked up to. Was she going to be told he didn't have a father anymore either?

After a few more moments of driving, Tool screeched to a halt outside Toll Road's house. Friday night was the one night she didn't need to look after her siblings and escaped to her dad's house for peace and quiet.

Tool turned off the car engine and opened the door to get out. "I'll be right back." He then slammed the door closed, locked the car and ran inside to get Emily.

Why had he locked the car? Sam and Cleo weren't going to run away from him.

Both thought the same thing but were too worried to ask each other and sat in silence until Tool returned with Emily. Cleo looked up at the house and could see the lights in the house were going off one by one and then Emily came out with Tool, locked the front door and made their way to the car. After unlocking the car, Tool jumped back into the drivers seat and Emily jumped in the back beside Sam. As Emily jumped in, Cleo saw her give Sam a worried look through the wing mirror and she felt her look drift to Cleo as she sat in the front.

"Let's go." Tool said breaking the silence and once again speeding away from Toll's house.

Silence once again filled the car.

Tool sneaked a quick glance at Cleo and then looked in the wing mirror to look at Emily and Sam. All three looked like their worlds were about to come crashing down on them. He knew what Emily and Cleo had gone through in their short lives and that they dependent on their dads for everything. Losing their dads could easily destroy what good was in them. Sam was luckier than them in the way she hadn't been through so much shit but she was still daddies little girl and would be crushed if he died. When he first met them, they were just three little babies who were so innocent and used to love drawing temporary tattoos on him. As they grew up, he had seen them change into the three strong, beautiful and independent women that they were today.

As they grew up, Tool had felt a need to protect them as if they were his own daughters. On the few occasions Gunner had relapsed when Cleo was younger, he was the one to call Rebecca to get her ass to New Orleans to help him and he looked after Cleo while she dealt with Gunner. When he used to go out in bars, he was the one who found Emily crouched in a corner looking scared with her mom high and drunk somewhere in the bar. He was the one to take her back to Toll's house and make sure she was safe with him. As Sam teased her siblings more and got in trouble for it, she would text him what had happened and he would let her hide at his place until the heat had died down. They would talk for hours until she had to face the music and go home. Tool would always give her some words of advice and she learned from it.

The others always teased him that he couldn't hold onto a woman but maybe that's because he had three women who had already taken his heart and was whipped by them.

He wanted to tell them the good news that they wanted to hear but that would open a can of worms and he wasn't prepared to make the situation worse. They would find out soon enough when they got back to his shop.

They soon arrived at the shop and Tool parked the car in the garage. No one said a word while they all got out and walked into the shop's main room.

Tool walked over to the little kitchen that was adjacent to the room. "Why don't you ladies go and get your things sorted upstairs. I'll make us some coco."

All three gave him a nod and headed to the lift to go upstairs. It was soon taking them upstairs.

Emily was first to talk. "You don't…" She started to say but then stopped.

Emily had always put a brave face on no matter what the situation was. Having spent the last 7 years with an abusive mother she could hide her emotions well and never let her guard down. However tonight, Cleo could see that the mask was down and her look could tell a hundred emotions: Scared, anger, worry, fear, dread.

Emily was the tough one but tonight she was the weak one. She had the most to lose.

As the lift stopped, the three girls headed to the second apartment above the shop that was next to Tool's apartment. The second one wasn't really an apartment. All it had was a twin bedroom, a single bedroom, a very small kitchen and a bathroom. If all three girls were staying or just two of them, they stayed in this apartment but if only one was staying, they would sleep in Tool's second bedroom in the main apartment. As they stayed there regularly, they all had at least two sets of spare clothes and toiletries to use meaning that they had fresh clothes for tomorrow.

As Cleo was the first one to enter, she got dib's on the single bedroom and went straight to the bed to lie down for a second.

What the hell was happening out there with the expendables?

It wasn't like Tool not to tell them what was happening, which meant something major was happening. Maybe that asshole church was the problem again. All Cleo wanted was for her dad to be ok. He could be injured but as long as he was alive, that's all she wanted.

"You coming?" Emily asked as she poked her head around the single room door.

"Yep." Cleo replied as she rolled off the bed and went back down stairs with the girls.

As they entered the main room, Tool had set 3 mugs of coco out for them and a plate of Oreos on a table. They each gave him a weak smile and sat down on the sofas around the table. Tool returned the weak smile and took a long draw of his cigar and huge swig of is beer.

An awkward silence once again filled the room. Something that had never happened before with them.

Emily looked up at Tool and broke the silence. "Tool what's happening?"

Tool sat silently as if he had never even heard her. He was trying to thing of what to ay without making the situation worse.

After another long draw of his cigar he answered her. "Don't worry Doll. You'll find out soon enough."

After answering Emily, Tool got up and left the room, leaving the girls alone again.

The three of them were so close and were only ever quiet when they were watching a film or had to be quiet for a specific reason. Tonight however none of them wanted to talk or couldn't find the right words to say. They were all thinking the same thing and no one could bring themselves to say the words. No words of comfort could be said to each other either as they knew that if one of them said something, they would not believe it and continue to feel the way they felt.

All they wanted was one question answered.

Were their dad's dead?

An hour had passed and not one of the girls had said anything in that time. The coco and Oreo's where left untouched and the silence in the room was getting louder.

Cleo had had enough and decided to be the first one to talk.

She was about to speak to Sam and Emily but voices coming from one of the side rooms interrupted her. It was a voice she easily recognised but it said something that they all dreaded to hear.

"No! We don't tell them anything."

Fresh tears were now threatening to escape from Cleo's eyes.

What did Barney mean by that. Don't tell them where their fathers are when we walk through the door and their not here?

The door to the side room creeped open slowly and all three braced themselves for the worse as the door opened fully.

"Daddy!"

When the door opened fully Gunner, Toll and Caesar were the first ones to come into the room. Each one searching for their daughter.

As soon as Cleo seen Gunner, she jumped off to the sofa and ran at him at full speed. Gunner ran towards her as well, opening his arms for Cleo to run into. As she crashed into him, he picked her up and held her tightly to his chest.

The tears that had threatened to escape Cleo's eyes did escape and she was now crying with relief.

"It's ok Cle. I'm ok." Gunner murmured in her ear as he continued to hold in his arms.

"I know. I was just scared that something might have happened to you and with no one telling us what was happening, I thought you were dead." Cleo replied against his shirt.

Gunner placed her back on the floor and pushed her away slightly so he could look at her. "Cle look at me."

Reluctantly Cleo looked up at her dad and their identical icy blue eyes met each other.

"What do I always say?" Gunner asked.

Cleo smiled before answering him, knowing he was now ok. "The Viking always conquered."

Gunner gave her his best smile and then crushed her back to his chest. "That's right and he always makes it home safely to his little princess."

In response Cleo hugged him tighter, knowing once again he was safe and uninjured.

The two of them stayed in their embrace for a few more minutes before breaking apart and turning to face the others in the room. Sam and Caesar had broken apart and Sam was wiping the tears of her face as well.

Emily and Toll had also broken apart and were facing the others. Cleo could see that Emily had tears in her eyes but now that she knew her dad was safe, her guard was back up. The tears wouldn't fall out of her eyes, so she looked like the tough one.

"Sorry about tonight girls. We didn't mean to scare you." Barney said as the whole team gathered on the sofas that three girls were sitting on.

"We're ok now. You guys are safe and that's all that matters." Sam replied from her spot on the couch.

The expendables shared a look between them before Barney spoke again. "Yeah we're ok but we're not out of the woods yet."

The three girls looked at Barney with a confused look. The expendables never came home unless a job was done and no loose ends.

"As a precaution for the next 48 hours we're all in lock down. Nobody leaves or enters this shop."

Why did they need to be in lock down? Surely the expendables could just go and find the target. Cleo was about to ask Barney that question but then realisation dawned on her.

Tomorrow was Saturday and the Jester's State championship.

"Uncle Barn, I can't do that. I have a soccer game tomorrow and I can't miss it."

As always Cleo expected Barney to reply, as he was the leader but it was her dad that answered her.

"Sorry Cle. You're going to have to miss this one."

Luckily Cleo knew exactly what to do. Turn on the puppy eyes.

"Dad please. This game is really important and if you're so worried then come with me so I won't be alone and you can…" Cleo was mid sentence and Gunner cut her off.

"No Cleo! There will be other games but not this one."

Cleo could tell he was being serious now and wouldn't budge as he used her full first name and not a nickname he usually called her. If she told him how big a deal the game was, maybe he would change his mind then. He had to.

"Dad, tomorrow is.." Cleo started to say but once again Gunner cut her off.

"Cleo no!"

Cleo was now pissed at Gunner. The little voice inside of her that was threatening to appear was bubbling away inside of her and she didn't know how much longer it could stay hidden. Gunner's last words had made it stronger.

He had missed countless things since she came back to New Orleans and every time she forgave him, no matter how disappointed she was. Now the one game that would prove how good she was and show all the work she had put in, was being taken away from her. Gunner had no right to do that. He had missed so many things and she forgave him. Not this time!

"Why are you treating me like such a baby!" Cleo spat back at him and everyone in the room could tell how angry she was. The Jensen temper was out.

Gunner noticed this and tried his best to remain calm but he couldn't control his anger either. He knew he had to protect her from the threat that was out there. One soccer game wasn't worth what could happen.

"Because you're acting like one! I'm the dad and my word is final. Conversation is over. Your not going and I don't want to hear another fucking word on this!" Gunner walked over to the couch and slumped down beside Lee.

Cleo crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

"Fine how about three." Cleo was still glaring at him as he looked back at her.

The little voice was no longer hiding and had escaped.

"I HATE YOU!" Cleo spat the words at Gunner as if they were venom.

Those were the three words, Cleo never thought she'd say to Gunner.

Not trusting herself to stop, she turned on her heels and ran up the stairs towards the second apartment.

"Cleo Ariel Sigrid Jensen get back here right now!" Gunner shouted after her as he pushed himself up from the couch.

Stopping at the top of the stairs above the main room, she turned and spat more words of venom at him. The voice had no invention of disappearing for a while now that it had escaped.

"I wish you had died instead of mom!"

Turning on her heels once again, she kept going towards the apartment.

There was no going back from this now. Cleo had taken her dads weakness and used it against him. She could picture him sitting back down on the couch thinking about her mom and thinking about how he was responsible for her death. Maybe he would relapse again.

In all honesty at this moment, Cleo didn't care about his feelings. He hadn't cared about her's or listened to the reason she had to go the soccer game. He could sit and sulk for a day or two as punishment.

As Cleo turned the corner and approached the door to the apartment. A figure stepped out from the shadows.

"Damn! I thought you were the quiet, sweet and innocent one." It said.

"What are you doing here?" Cleo asked.

She was both annoyed and happy to see the person.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	5. Chapter 5

**Here we go with Chapter 5. Not Very excited but the next chapter will explain more. Please leave a review.**

"Dad called me and asked me to come down to help for a bit. When he asked how could I say no" He replied with a wink to Cleo.

The happiness she felt to see him disappeared and was replaced with more feelings of anger.

With a look of disgust, she opened the apartment door and headed to her bedroom. She immediately got out her phone and begun frantically typing into it. After a few moments, she realised that he had followed her in and had locked the door. As she turned round, he crushed his lips to hers.

At first Cleo was shocked at the sudden contact but then relaxed as the anger melted away and she wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. Sensing she was willing to go further, he licked his tongue along her bottom lip asking for permission. Cleo responded by opening her mouth and their tongues collided against each other.

After a few moments they parted. "See you did miss me then."

Cleo was still dizzy from the kiss and it took her a moment to respond. "In your dreams, Jason. Your nothing special."

Jason looked down at Cleo's feet and let his eyes look all the way up her body to her eyes. Even though she was in a hoodie and pyjamas, he didn't mind. "Man, I gotta fuck you again." Jason said as he once again crashed his lips to hers and Cleo did nothing to stop him as their tongues collided again.

Jason was Barney's son and was almost his twin. He was tall and tanned with jet-black hair, sparkling green eyes and a ripped body that almost put Caesar to shame. He was cocky at times but he was genuinely a good guy and had a soft side that only a certain few had seen. Women threw themselves at him all the time and yet he kept coming back to her.

They had first met when Cleo was 6 and he was 17. He spent time with her whenever all the expendables were together but it was only rarely as he was starting to drift apart from Barney. When Cleo was 8, Jason left the shop one night and Cleo didn't see him again until she returned from San Diego to live in New Orleans permanently and after he had patched things up with Barney.

It was Cleo's first time by herself in New Orleans and Gunner was away on a job but had asked Jason to stay with her for the first night to make sure she was ok. He had agreed, as he wanted to see her again. They stayed up till midnight chatting and laughing with each other. The minute Cleo saw him; she thought he was gorgeous.

They had each gone to different beds but Cleo had one of her nightmares again. When she screamed, Jason ran through and held her until she had calmed down. She was so embarrassed about it and tried to apologise for it, although he reassured her, there was no reason to be embarrassed. He bent down to kiss her forehead and when he looked into her eyes, he just couldn't help himself.

She was no longer the little girl who used to run around Tool's shop drawing temporary tattoos on everyone. The Nordic complexion of her face mixed with her dark brown hair made for an amazing combination. Playing soccer and practicing karate had given her enough muscle to not look manly but toned and fit. He had leaned down and kissed her on the lips instead and Cleo responded by kissing him back. She had made out with a boy on the boys football team before but Jason was more experienced and a way better kisser.

Before they knew what was happening, they were both naked in her bed and Jason had claimed her virginity. He was gentle with her and would have stopped if she had asked but she didn't and it was amazing sex.

They woke up together the next morning and acted like nothing had happened. Jason knew that he didn't want to settle down and he knew he wasn't good enough for her. She deserved someone that could give her anything she wanted, when she wanted it. Plus if his dad found out, he knew it wouldn't be long until Gunner found out and then shit would get really serious.

Cleo also knew that nothing could happen between them. He was a nice guy but when he was too cocky, she wanted nothing more than to slap him and tell him to get a grip. She could tell he wanted to play the field more and not be tied down and stuck with one girl. She had accepted it easily and knew it was just sex. Plus if her dad found out what happened, Jason would be in an early grave and she would be under house arrest forever.

They had both agreed it was a one off thing but somehow if Jason was in town, they ended up together. Whether it was a quick make out session, with quickly feeling each other up or full on mind-blowing sex. It was their dirty little secret – not even Sam or Emily knew. They both knew it wasn't good for either of them but they couldn't stop.

Tonight was no different. All Cleo's anger disappeared the moment he kissed her and she gave into him.

Cleo wrapped her left arm around Jason's neck and fisted her other hand in his hair as their tongues kept colliding against each other. Jason responded by fisting his right hand in her hair while the other one travelled south. Once it reached her breast, he squeezed it gently and Cleo moaned against his mouth in response. Things were getting good but a knock at the door interrupted them.

"Cleo it's us. Let us in." Sam said from behind the door.

They both gave a sigh of disappointment at being interrupted. "Just when things were getting good. I'll stall them while you try and get your anger back again." He quickly bent down and gave her a final long lingering kiss before unlocking the door and sliding out to see Sam and Emily.

She wondered what bullshit excuse he would be using this time to cover their tracks. She didn't have too much time to think though as she had to look like she was still angry. It wasn't hard and as soon as she thought about tomorrow's game, the anger came rushing back and she was pissed again. Cleo once again grabbed her phone, went over to the desk in the room and began writing information down on a piece of paper.

She was so engrossed in writing down information that she didn't notice the three of them coming back into the room.

"Are you ok?" Sam asked nervously.

"Nope!" Cleo spat back at her without looking up.

"Your dad is pretty shaken up. You've really hurt him." Sam replied.

"I think you did the right thing. Maybe not the right choice of words but it was defiantly time that he knew how you felt." Emily said.

"Thanks." Cleo replied flatly to Emily.

Cleo got up from the desk and went over to the closet. She picked up her spare duffel bag and began packing the bag.

"Where are you going? We're under lock down." Jason asked surprised at what she was doing.

Cleo finally looked at the three of them. "I don't care! I'm going to that soccer game tomorrow. I've worked so hard over the last year to get to the level that I'm at and earn the respect of my teammates. Tomorrow could change my life and prove how good I am. We obviously can't be in that much danger if the expendables didn't even bother to tell us what we're in lock down for. I'm going to that game tomorrow and no one can stop me!"

"What can we do to help?" Emily asked.

Cleo paused from packing her bag and looked up at her friends again. "You guys don't have to help. I'm going to get in so much trouble if I get caught and I'm not taking you guys down with me."

Sam stepped forward and grabbed Cleo's hand. "What have we always done in the past? If one jumps in, we all jump in together. We're with you on this one."

Emily also stepped towards Cleo and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "Damn straight."

Cleo gave them a weak smile and knew there was no way they would back out or tell the expendables what she was planning.

"You guys are the best." She replied but her attention soon shifted towards Jason.

"Are you gonna rat us out or are you going to help as well."

Jason went silent before he answered. "Well I guess I am because if I say no I'm not gonna make it out of that door, am I?"

"No!" All three girls answered in unison.

"Ok then. Plus like Cleo said. Dad didn't even tell me what the treat is, so it can't be that serious. What's the plan of attack?" Jason asked Cleo.

Cleo went over to the desk and got the piece of paper she had written on earlier.

"This is the info we need to carry this out. It's a list of the stuff I need, how we can get out of here, how to get to the game, time of the game and when it ends."

"We've got fourteen hours. Let's make a plan." Jason replied.

All four gathered on the single bed and began brainstorming ideas.

After an hour, they hade a plan.

It was now midnight and Cleo couldn't sleep.

They had made the plan and all four of them knew what role they played in making sure it went perfectly. After that, it was just up to Cleo to perform in the game and prove she was good enough for a scholarship.

After the plan was made, Sam and Emily went downstairs to send time with their dads and the other expendables. Cleo didn't feel like talking to anyone as she was still angry about the whole situation but luckily Jason had stayed with her and taken her mind of things with hot and angry sex. It was a lot harder tonight as they had to be extra quiet but it made it more fun for the both of them.

Ever since Cleo found out that the scout's would be offering scholarships in the game tomorrow, she'd had mixed feelings about it. She was excited as that being offered a scholarship meant she was good enough to play professional and that all her hard work had paid off. No more doubting herself or thinking if soccer was her calling in life. It was basically a one-way ticket to NWSL and with that would come money, sponsorships, commercials, meeting famous people and people would be walking around with her name on the back of their shirts. However there was the negative effect of the scholarship. It would mean not graduating high school the right way. She'd also have to leave behind her friends and all the expendables. She'd miss them all so much and she'd have to start making friends again at her new college. But there was one thing that was holding Cleo back.

Her dad.

They were so close and after 16 years they were finally living together like a father and daughter should. The last year had made them even closer than before and they were both so happy together. Cleo wasn't ready to move away and be without him again like when she and her mom lived in Houston.

However the events of tonight had totally changed her feelings about him. Tonight had proved that he didn't care about her achievements in her life, potentially her future career and her feelings towards soccer. He hadn't even given her chance to explain what the game was and why it was so important to her. She was still so angry about the whole situation and was not going to speak to him unless he apologised first, as he was the one in the wrong.

Although she hadn't seen him since she shouted at him, she had heard someone stand outside the bedroom door and try to open the door but Cleo had kept it locked encase he did come in. After he had tried to open the door, the person gave a loud and aggravated sigh before turning and leaving the second apartment. She knew it was her dad. She didn't know if he had come to shout at her, apologise or pacify her.

Either way she didn't care! It would do him good to sulk and think about the pain and hurt that he had caused her. When she came home from the game tomorrow, she would take whatever consequences he gave her – knowing that she had done something for herself and proven how good she was.

Cleo let out a huge sigh and turned onto her other side, hoping to fall asleep.

Tomorrow was a huge day and she wasn't sure how it would end.

It was 9am and the plan to get Cleo to the soccer game was about to get set into motion.

Jason had gone down stairs earlier and brought Cleo a big breakfast so that she had enough energy to play efficiently in the game. Cleo didn't want to eat anything as she was so nervous but knew that if she didn't eat she wouldn't perform at her best.

Emily and Sam were now down stairs having breakfast and giving everyone else the excuse that Cleo didn't feel like eating or seeing anyone yet, which wasn't really an excuse but the truth. If she went down stairs she'd have to face her dad and all of the others would be watching them to see if they made up or not. That wasn't happening today.

Cleo had her bag all packed with a change of clothes and shower toiletries so she could shower after the game. She had showered earlier, brushed her teeth and was now in her tracksuit bottoms, a training tank top and her hoodie from the other night. Luckily she had left her soccer uniform, cleats and soccer hoodie in her locker at the stadium so they didn't have to go back to the house to get anything. All they had to do now was sneak out the shop and get back undetected.

Cleo was hoping it all went to plan and they could pull it off but if they got caught, she was willing to take whatever punishment she was given. She was still thinking about how the expendables would find out. If she got the scholarship would she wait until the lockdown was over to tell them or burst through the front door announcing it to everyone this afternoon? If she didn't get the scholarship, would they just not say anything and it would be a secret or would they come clean, as it had been for nothing?

Right now this was all based on a what if. In 4 hours time, Cleo would know what to say depending on how the game went.

There was a knock at the door and it pulled Cleo out of her thoughts. Cleo went to unlock the door as she knew it was the girls as they did the secret knock – knock 4 times, then 3 times and then twice.

Emily and Sam came in and both were carrying sodas, chips and enough candy to last a week. "What's with the candy?" Cleo asked puzzled locking the door behind them.

"We added to the plan and told them we're having a movie day to try and cheer you up. We took the snacks to make it seem real." Sam replied she and Emily placed the snacks on the desk.

Before Cleo knew what she was doing, she asked them something she didn't mean to ask. "How is he?"

Emily and Sam shared a look between them before they answered Cleo.

"Like a ghost. Looks like he hasn't slept at all and when we said you didn't want to see anyone, he looked even more devastated. I hope he can get over this" Sam said.

"He will but it's his own fault. He should have listened in the first place and now he knows how I feel." Cleo replied.

Both Emily and Sam had never seen Cleo like this before. If her dad was upset or hurt, she would always make sure he was ok and would panic if there was something majorly wrong. Now she didn't care about him. The man who was her idol and was the only parent she had left. All the anger bottled up had shown how she felt and they both hoped that after the game today, she would go back to the kind and caring Cleo that they both knew. She never shouted at anyone unless they had well and truly pissed her off and it was like someone had flicked a switch inside her head and changed her.

"Ok. Jason's away to get the car. We better get this show on the road then." Emily as she went over to the window and opened it. Cleo and Sam gave her a nod and followed her to the window.

The plan was for all three girls to "quietly" sneak out the bedroom window, down the drainpipe and out the back entrance of the shop where there were no windows on the ground floor, so the expendables wouldn't see them. They would then run down the block and meet Jason who would be waiting with his car to take them to the stadium.

It sounded easy but now they just had to pull it off.

Emily went first and slowly climbed out the window and balanced herself on the window ledge. She then grabbed the drainpipe with both hands and started to slowly climb down it. When she was 3 feet from the ground, the pipe stopped and she pushed off the pipe and jumped to the ground, landing softy on her feet. Once she was down, she gave a thumb up to Cleo and Sam signalling she was down safely. Cleo then dropped her bag down to Emily which she caught.

Cleo went next and managed to get down quietly and safely. Sam then followed and managed to get down quietly as well. Step 1 was complete. The girls then began running down to the next block to meet up with Jason. When they got to the next block, they quickly spotted the bright yellow jaguar car that was his pride and joy. The three of them climbed into the car and Jason drove off.

"Step 2 complete Bumble Bee. Let's go!" Emily said they all clipped on their step belts.

"Hey! I can kick you out now and leave you behind. You don't make fun of my baby." Jason shot back at her.

"Guys stop arguing and lets go!" Cleo shouted back at them. She could tell that they were about to start arguing and she didn't want to hear it. They needed to get to the stadium ASAP. The more they hung around the shop, the more nervous Cleo was getting.

Emily knew what Cleo was thinking and didn't respond to Jason like she was going to. She would love nothing more than to argue with that arrogant airheaded fucker who thought he owned the world but she could tell that Cleo needed her to follow the plan and not screw anything up for a change. It was her big day and she had to support her.

Jason seemed to the get the message as well and started the engine. "Ok. Calm down, we're going."

With that, the car pulled out of the parking space and headed towards the stadium. The four of them sat in silence for 20 minutes that it took to get to the stadium. They were all nervous for the outcome for Cleo and they didn't want to say anything to jinx it or make her feel more pressured than she already was. Once they arrived at the stadium, Jason dropped the girls at the entrance to the stadium and left. He was going to look out for anything suspicious and check the perimeter every 20 minutes to be on the safe side.

When the girls entered the stadium, Cleo stopped at the ticket office and came back with two badges attached to lanyards. "These are your VIP passes. They get you anywhere but the locker room."

"Cool, thanks." Emily and Sam replied as they put them over their heads.

"No problem. I gotta go and warm up. The lounge is up those stairs. I'll text you after where we can meet." Cleo pointed to a set of stairs to show them where the lounge was and then broke into a jog for the locker rooms.

"Good luck!" Sam and Emily shouted in unison as Cleo ran off and they headed up to the lounge.

Cleo didn't look back at them but gave them a thumbs up as she kept running towards the locker room. Once there she burst through the doors and she was greeted by all of her teammates.

"Hey Jensen. Thought you weren't gonna show up for a moment there." One girl laughed at her.

"Course I'd show up. You guys can't win without me." Cleo shout back and went over to her locker.

The other girls each greeted Cleo and they all got ready into their uniforms. As they were playing at home, it was the purple and green uniform that they were playing in. Once they were all ready, they went to warm up before the game started in 45 minutes. Cleo found that when she was warming up, she felt more nervous than she did earlier but by some miracle her ability to play soccer hadn't been affected. Yet.

The team warmed up for 20 minutes and then headed back inside the locker room to get ready to line up and walk out.

As the girls were about to the line up, Coach Kane entered the room.

"Ok team gather around." Coach Kane said and whole squad gathered around her. She wasn't a woman known for great speeches and she didn't disappoint now.

"You all know how important today is so I won't preach about it. Not just for the championship but also for a certain few of you who will be monitored closely today. All I want is for you girls to go out there and play your hearts out like you have done for every game that got us here. More importantly I want y'all to have fun and enjoy the game. Now let us pray."

Coach Kane lowered her head and all the girls followed. Being a southern state, New Orleans had a very strong Christian religion in the city and almost all of the girls in the team were devout Christians.

Cleo on the other hand wasn't. If God was real, he wouldn't have killed her mom as she was a good person and didn't deserve to die. Instead Cleo lowered her head and said a silent prayer in her head to her mom.

"Mom I don't know if you can hear me but please help out there today. I know that if you are listening you probably heard the things I said to dad. I promise that I'll make it up to him but for now I need your help just. I love you."

"Amen." Coach Kane said ending her prayer.

"Amen!" All the girls including Cleo repeated.

All the girls then broke out of the huddle that they were in and lined up to walk out onto the field.

Cleo's heart was racing with excitement and nervousness.

"Hear we go." She said in her head as the team started walking out onto the field.

TO BE CONINTUED.

So what will the result be? Will she get a scholarship? Also what about the threat that the expendables are hiding from.

All will be revealed. Please follow and review.


	6. Chapter 6

**re we go again. This where the action picks ups. Hope you like it and please leave a review.**

Sam sat biting her nails nervously. "Ok before we go any further what's the plan now."

Jason sat still and pretended not to hear her. He was also trying to think of a plan now as well.

"How about the classic, I walked into a door excuse?" Emily asked with look of genius on her face.

Jason gave her a look of annoyance and anger. "Great but what about the bandages and band aides Dumbo?"

Emily shot him a dirty look. "Well you come up with something besides just driving us home in silence."

"Guys! We're just gonna have to tell them the truth." Cleo spoke up from the back seat of the car.

"I'll tell them the truth but you guys don't have to take any part in it. I'll say I forced you guys to help me and take whatever punishment I get."

"Hell no! We agreed that we're in this together and if you go down, we go to. I agree with Cleo that we tell the truth and we take what they give us. Agreed?" Sam asked nervously.

Emily and Jason shared another dirty look between them before they answered.

"I agree." Emily said first.

"Me to." Jason replied.

"I'll tell them though and hopefully they will focus on the great news instead of us sneaking out." Cleo said to them.

The game was over and the four of them were on their way back to the shop. The game was great and the Jesters had won 3-1 and Cleo had scored 2 out of the 3 goals. Her team had lifted her up on their shoulders when she scored the final goal and she felt on top of the world. The game had gone into two minutes extra time. Cleo had jumped up to header the ball off her head but she didn't see the other player on the other team jump at the same time as she did. The other girl had jumped higher than Cleo and instead of knocking the ball with her head, she had head butted Cleo in the face instead. The knock took Cleo by surprise and she fell to the ground clutching her nose as a warm trickle ran down from her nose over her lips. Cleo knew it was blood but she couldn't get up as she could see black spots in her vision and thought that she had a concussion from a moment.

The medic quickly looked her over and confirmed that she didn't have a concussion but her nose was fractured. The other girl had apologised to Cleo and in the nature of good sportsmanship, she had accepted it, although she really wanted to punch her back.

The medic had bandaged her nose up and told her to rest and take headache tablets if needed. The medic had also told her to go the hospital if needed to get her nose re-bandaged and make sure no clots had formed. The game had finished and even though she looked like shit, Cleo had joined her team for the group photo and raising the championship cup. All the hard work from the season had paid off and everyone on the team was so happy that they had won.

After more hugs and congratulations, the team had started to head back into the locker room to shower but Cleo and two other girls were stopped by coach Kane, who took them to meet four people in street clothes. Cleo knew instantly that they were the talent scouts. Coach Kane introduced the girls to the scouts and Cleo's wish then came true.

They offered her a scholarship.

All of her hard work for the last year had paid off and it was worth sneaking out of the shop and fighting with her dad. The scout had assured Cleo that she could take as much as she needed to accept his offer and discuss it with her family. Cleo was so happy about the scholarship and still angry at her dad, that she almost said to him that she didn't have a family and almost accepted it straight away. Some part of her kept her from saying that and she said she would think about it and let him know very soon.

Once coach Kane and the scouts had left the three of them, they had all hugged each and congratulated each other. All three so happy that their hard work had paid off and they were one step closer to becoming professional players.

They had headed back into the locker room to shower and change before leaving the stadium. Cleo took slightly longer as her face and head were still sore from earlier. She eventually got ready and met Emily and Sam in the foyer. Her plan was to look upset and angry so they would think she didn't get a scholarship and then tell them the truth. However when Cleo seen them, her face burst into the biggest smile she could manage and they knew instantly that Cleo had gotten the scholarship.

The three of them shared a group hug and said that they never doubted Cleo and knew that she could do it. They then made their way back to Jason and he took one look at Cleo and spoilt the congratulations.

"Well done Cleo, but now we have a problem."

Cleo looked shocked at him for what he had said. "What problem is that?" She asked.

She had expected him to be happy for her and whisper in her ear that he would show her how happy he was for her tonight but he didn't.

"Now the expendables are gonna know that we snuck out." Jason replied seriously.

Realisation dawned on the girls and they all shared the same look.

Oh Fuck!

The expendables would take one look at Cleo and know that her nose injury couldn't have happened inside the shop and there were no first aid kits upstairs to bandage her nose. Steps 1 and 2 were complete but step 3 had to be re-planned because none of them expected for Cleo to get injured like this.

They were about three quarters of the way back to the shop and they had stopped at a red light waiting for it to change.

Emily didn't like the silence and tried to lighten the mood. "What do you suppose our punishment will be? Locked in our rooms forever? Clean the shop for a year?"

Sam and Cleo knew that even though she was partly serious, she was trying to be funny as well and then both grinned at her comments.

"Yeah or clean Tools apartment for a month. The man's an animal." Sam replied with a chuckle.

"The shop is cleaner than his apartment but let's not forget what could be our biggest punishment." Cleo said chuckling as well.

Sam and Emily turned to face her. "What?" They both as asked in unison.

"Cleaning the plane and the hanger."

"That's giving me the fear! Let's hope it doesn't..." Sam replied but she wasn't able to finish speaking.

While they had talking about punishments, no one had noticed a white van coming full speed towards Jason's car and it crashed into the driver side. The force of the crash had pushed the car off the road and onto the grass on the sidewalk. This was a deserted part of the city that hardly anybody used to travel down, meaning no one had seen or heard the crash and who ever caused it, had done it on purpose.

Jason and Sam were knocked out on impact of the crash as they were on the side that the van had crashed into. Emily was still conscious but only just and was fighting to not give into the darkness. Her body was sore and she was scared to move encase anything was broken.

"Cleo?" Emily whimpered hoping she would hear her, as she couldn't turn around.

She could tell that Jason was out cold and knew that Sam would be to.

Emily had hit her head off the window in the crash and it hurt like hell. She was worried about Cleo encase she had hit her head as well. If she had, it could have made her nose worse and possibly caused a concussion.

Cleo mean while sat slumped back in her seat beside Sam. She knew instantly as well that Sam and Jason wouldn't be conscious as the van hit their side.

"Cleo?"

She could register someone whispering her name and knew that it was Emily. Cleo's whole body ached but she could tell that nothing was seriously broken but she could feel the warm trickle of blood running from her nose again and knew her nose was either just bleeding or was broken this time. She wanted to try and respond to Emily but Cleo's head was killing her and black spots were appearing in front of her vision again. Her head had only been bumped slightly in the crash but with her previous injury from earlier, it had made it worse and Cleo knew that she did have a concussion now.

The black spots in her vision were getting worse and she was trying to fight giving into blackness but she couldn't do it for much longer.

Just before Cleo blacked out, she heard a voice speak and knew it meant this couldn't be good.

"Leave the boy. We only need daddies little girls. Time to teach the expendables a lesson!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cleo slowly opened her eyes and her vision eventually became less blurry. When she could see again, she could see she was in a dark room with no windows which gave no indication of where she was or who she was with.

She decided to sit up to see if that gave her a better idea of her surroundings but as soon as she sat up, the contents of her stomach had to be emptied and she turned around to be sick on the floor.

Cleo wiped her mouth with hand and seen blood on it. She assumed that it was from her nose bleeding again in the crash but if there was blood in her sick that meant something was very wrong

"Cleo?" A voice spoke after Cleo was finish being sick.

Cleo turned around and seen two blurry shapes. As her eyes slowly adjusted, she knew it was Sam and Emily.

"You guys ok?" Cleo asked groggily.

"I'm ok, just tender." Emily replied.

"I think I've sprained my wrist but I'll be ok." Sam replied clutching her wrist as if to emphasis her point.

Just then the door to their prison opened and a man they had never seen before stalked over to where they were sitting.

"Oh don't worry about that. By the time I'm finished with you girls, you'll have pain like you've never felt before!"

The girls knew that this couldn't be good. They all knew that they could have taken the man on but they were sore and didn't have the strength to defend themselves. Plus if the man had back up, they would be over powered again.

"Who are you?" Cleo asked.

The man looked over each of the girls, studying them carefully.

"Well not that it matters for much longer but you can call me Mr Green."

The three of them looked at each and then back at Mr Green. None of them had ever heard of his name before.

"Now your probably wondering why I've done this and what my plan is." Mr Green asked them.

"I'm guessing it's because you think we're beautiful and are going to make us famous!" Emily replied in the biggest sarcastic tone.

Cleo and Sam both shot her a dirty look. Now was not the time for Emily to run her smart mouth off. It was time to shut the fuck up and not say anything. If she kept doing this, it could make the guy even more angry and result badly for them.

Mr Green gave a small chuckle. " No Miss Road, your fate is going to be the total opposite. Let me tell you how you ended up here and how this ends."

Emily seemed to get the point now how serious this was and decided to shut up.

"About 10 years ago I had one of the biggest empires in the world. Guns, bombs, nuclear weapons and basically anything you could sell on the black market. I was a king! That was until a team of so-called mercenary's decided that I had to go. They wiped out all of my men and thought that they had killed me but by some fucking miracle I survived and I left my mark on one of them so they would remember me every time they looked in the mirror."

A chill ran through Cleo's body, as she knew exactly what mark Mr Green was referring to.

Her dad's scarred right cheek. 10 years ago was when he got the scar.

"After I finally recovered I started planning my revenge on them but it just seemed pointless to kill them. So I started gathering Intel on them and found that three of them had daughters, which were their greatest weakness. I just had to wait for the right time and place to take you girls. They took the bait and accepted the 2 day job but some asshole screwed up and they found out I was alive and what my plan was. I knew that the expendables would keep an eye on you when they found out what I was up to but I also knew you'd go to that soccer game. We followed you there and then doubled back and waited for our chance."

Mr Green paused slightly for dramatic affect and to make sure the girls were listening.

"So in short you lovely ladies are paying the price for your fathers crimes and by the time they realise what has happened to you, it will be to late as you'll be dead. So any questions?"

Emily just glared at Mr Green when he asked and Sam seemed to be thinking everything over in her head to think of a question. Cleo had a question though.

"How did you know about my soccer game?"

Mr Green gave a booming laughing before answering her. "My dear Miss Jensen, that is the best part of all. You see it was very hard to monitor you three while you were at school, so I had to bring in some extra help to track your every move. Let me show you my secret weapon."

The door where Mr Green had entered the room was swung open again and the three of the girls couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"I believe you know my daughter." Mr Green replied as he slung his arm over his daughters shoulder.

In front of the girls was Leah Carter. The popular high school girl who always tried to make their lives hell and now she had.

If Emily could have stood up, she would have killed Leah then but she couldn't.

"I'm going to fucking kill you, bitch!" Emily spat at her.

Leah gave an evil chuckle in return that matched her dads. "You'll be dead before you get the chance. I'm going to miss hearing your stupid little voices everyday."

The pair looked over the girls once more before Leah and her dad turned on their heels and felt the room, locking the door behind them.

For the first time since seeing her dad was ok after arriving at the shop, Cleo now felt scared and guilty, as everything had fallen into place for her. The expendables hadn't told them what the threat was because they didn't want them panicking that someone was after them and not the expendables for once. The lock down was so that they could keep an eye on the girls and know exactly where they were. When her dad had said no to going to the soccer game, he had been so desperate to protect her that he wouldn't even hear her reasons. He was angry when he spoke to her because he knew someone was after his little girl and it scared the shit out of him but Cleo had betrayed him.

Cleo felt guilty because she said she hated him when all he was trying to do was protect her from Mr Green. Now because of Cleo, she had put her best friends lives in danger and it didn't look like they could get out of this.

"Guys this is all my fault. We should never have snuck out." Cleo snuffled slightly.

Emily moved slowly over to Cleo and hugged her. "No don't do that! We volunteered and you didn't hold a gun to our heads to make us help you."

Sam had also moved across and sat on Cleo's other side. "Yeah and the team should have told us that it was us in danger. If we'd known, we wouldn't have gone. Your not to blame for this Cleo."

Cleo sighed heavily from between Sam and Emily. "Ok, so what do we do now?"

"Let's hope the expendables can find out where ever the hell we are and save us." Emily replied.

All the three of them wanted more than anything right now was their dads and hopefully they would see them again.

"Dad I'm sorry for everything I said and I need you. Please find us." Cleo said to herself in her head.

"I don't wish you were dead. I love you."

Jason opened his eyes and everything around him was blurry and his head was killing him. After a few moments everything came into focus and he could tell that he was in an alleyway lying on garbage. As he moved slowly into a sitting position, a sharp pain ran through his chest and he knew his ribs were either broken or cracked. He sat for moment and got his breath back.

"Rise and shine sleeping Beauty. I was wondering if were dead."

Jason turned around and seen a homeless old man sitting across from him in a cardboard box.

"Yeah I'm alive. How did I get here?" Jason asked groggily.

The man took a large drink of vodka. "Bunch of assholes threw you in this alleyway and made a getaway in a white van. In this neighbourhood it's not uncommon to see that."

Jason suddenly remembered what happened. Something had crashed into his car and knocked him out. It had to have been the threat the expendables were hiding from. But what about the girls?

"Did you see three teenage girls in the van?"

"No but it drove away like a bat out of hell!" The man replied laughing and taking another gulp of vodka.

"Fuck!"

Jason slowly pulled himself up into a standing position and more pain shot through his chest. He then took a step and the pain returned but he knew he had to get moving and get back to the shop. The girls were in trouble and he needed to raise the alarm.

He parted ways with the old man and made his way out of the alleyway. He saw a car that looked to be abandoned and broke the window to jump-start it. Luckily it started easily and he continued his journey to the shop.

"Don't worry girls, we're coming." He said aloud.

He hadn't been thorough enough with his security checks and now they were gone because of him. He should have been stronger in the first place and said no to Cleo's plan but he couldn't help himself and said yes.

He just hoped now that Gunner, Toll and Caesar would forgive him and they that they could save the girls in time.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Hope you liked that chapter. Stayed tune for more. Please leave a review.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi Guys. Sorry it's late but was deciding between 2 storylines. Hope you enjoy and please a comment. Happy reading!**

It was just after 9pm and the expendables were trying to busy themselves with tasks to keep their minds off the awkward situation that happened yesterday with Cleo and Gunner.

Lee was cleaning his precious bike. Barney was discussing a new tattoo idea with Tool. Yang, Toll and Caesar were playing cards and Gunner sat sharping his knife but he was clearly thinking about something else.

"I've only seen him like this twice before and what happens after is not good." Barney said as he looked up from the sketchbook.

Tool closed the book and stood up off his seat. "Let's go talk to him." Barney followed his lead and they pulled up two chairs beside Gunner who didn't even stop sharpening the knife as they sat down.

"Hey brother, you've been sharpening that knife for 2 hours. I think it's ok." Tool said trying to get the knife away so that they could properly talk to Gunner.

Gunner did stop after a moment and placed the knife on the table in front of the chairs.

Once the knife was away Tool handed him a fresh beer. "What's on your mind?"

"I'm peachy!" Gunner replied taking a swig of the bottle.

"Come on Gunner, you need talk about this cos it's not gonna do you any favours keeping it bottled up." Barney replied as he took a drink as well.

Gunner paused for a moment and then let out a long sigh, knowing that they were right. "My worst fear has just come true. She hates me and she might not want to speak to me again."

"Gunner you know that's not true." Barney replied.

"It is Barn! Every time I've missed something, the hurt in her eyes shows that I've screwed up again and it was only a matter of time before I pushed her away completely. I know that keeping her locked up just now is the safest thing to do but it was the last strike for her. When she said she hated me, I knew that she meant every bit of it. Of course I should have died instead of Becca."

"Well let me ask you then. Would you rather have your daughter hate you or would you rather her be kidnapped by Mr Green?" Barney asked.

"Are you shitting me? Of course I don't want Green getting her! I want her safe and alive!" Gunner spat back at Barney.

"Right now she is safe and alive upstairs but angry at you. So don't you want that instead of her outside with a mad man chasing her and loving you." Barney asked as he finished the bottle of beer he had.

"Well yeah." Gunner replied.

"So let her be angry at you until she is ready to talk to you. When this is over and you tell her what the threat was, she'll understand why you did what you did and that a soccer game wasn't worth what could have happened. She loves you so much and you just have to be patient and calm when she comes to speak to you but I know she'll be sorry for what she said. You may wish you were dead but Cleo won't. You're that girl's hero and the main person in her life. Trust me in a few months time we'll be looking back on this and laughing."

Gunner knew that Barney was right in what he was saying but it didn't make him feel better just yet. When he heard that Green was alive, the hatred rose within him at the man who had marked his face and showed him for the monster he truly was. How could they have been so stupid to leave him alive 10 years ago? Now he was after his daughter and his friend's daughters who he considered adopted nieces. They had agreed not to tell the girls that Green was after them so that they didn't panic at every noise that they heard in the shop or were scared to ever go outside again. When Cleo pleaded with him to go the game, he had shouted at her because he was trying to protect her and hoped that in the future she would realise that. He hadn't expected her to say what she said. They had been so close all of her life and even closer after the events of last year and he just hoped that they could recover from this.

Gunner made a promise to himself then that when Cleo was ready to talk, he would be calm and not shout at her.

Gunner let out another big sigh. "I suppose your right Barn. It's the waiting that kills me."

"It won't be as long as you think." Barney replied as he fist bumped Gunner.

Feeling a bit better after chatting to Barney and Tool, the three men decided to go and play cards with everyone else.

After a new more games and beers, everyone was in good spirits. Toll and Caesar had gone up to check on the girls. The door was locked but they could hear a catchy Disney song playing and the girls laughing. Satisfied that they were ok, they returned back to play cards.

Everyone was in good spirits and Lee was about to deal another round of cards but a loud bang interrupted them.

All of the expendables reacted instantly and got a weapon ready to defend themselves and the girls upstairs.

All weapons were pointed towards the door and they waited anxiously for the next move. Whoever was on the other side tried to open the door but found it was locked. Then came the voice that Barney recognised.

"Dad it's me, open the door!"

The expendables relaxed and lowered their weapons and Barney went to open the door for Jason.

"Tell him to phone next time Barn and don't give us heart attacks!" Caesar shouted as they returned to the table to finish their game.

Barney ignored his comment and opened the door for Jason but when he saw him, he was shocked.

Barney grabbed Jason around the waist to make sure he didn't fall. "Jason what happened?"

The team had seen Barney grab Jason and rushed over to help. Toll brought a chair over and Jason flopped onto it, while Tool got the first aid kit.

After Jason got his breathe back, he was able to talk. "They've got them!"

Barney looked at him confused. "Who's got who son?"

"The threat we're hiding from. They've got the girls." Jason replied breathlessly.

All of the expendables looked at each other confused and slightly worried.

"Jason I think you might have a concussion brother. The girls are upstairs watching a movie." Tool said as he dabbed the dried blood of Jason's face.

"No their not!"

Barney now seemed to be the only one who thought Jason was telling the truth. "What happened son?"

"Cleo wanted to go to her soccer game. We snuck out this morning and went. On our way home someone attacked us. I woke up in an alleyway left for dead. The girls are gone." Jason replied in short breaths.

Everyone froze as realisation dawned on them.

Tool looked up from cleaning Jason's face. "There's a spare master key for the second apartment in the red box next door."

Gunner, Toll and Caesar quickly shared a look between them and then ran next door to get the key and then headed upstairs to the second apartment.

"Dad I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have done it." Jason said as Tool went back to cleaning the blood of his face.

"It's not me you have to be sorry to. I've got my child here alive but they don't!" Barney replied coldly to Jason.

A lot of cursing was heard from upstairs and soon the three men were back with everyone else.

"They had the DVD player and voice recorder on repeat so it sounded like they we're upstairs. We also found this note." Toll sounded out of breathe as he relayed to Barney what they had found upstairs. Barney took the note from Toll and read it out loud.

"Went to my soccer game. Sorry but I have to do this and I'll take whatever punishment you give me when I come home. Cleo. P.S Don't be mad at Sam or Emily, it was my idea."

Gunner turned and kicked the chairs that they had been sitting on and clenched his muscles tightly as he turned and faced Jason.

"Why didn't you stop them!"

Jason was taken aback from his outburst and knew he had to remain calm and not aggravate Gunner more. "There was no stopping Cleo. She was on a mission and nothing was stopping her from leaving."

"You should have tried harder!" Gunner made to move towards Jason, fists raised but Barney stood between them.

"Gunner this isn't helping anything! Your daughter's got your stubbornness when she's angry. If she had her heart set on going to that game, she would have gone so this isn't Jason's fault. Right now we need to find out where he could have taken them." Barney knew he had to reach the sane part of Gunner before it was to late.

Gunner grunted in response and tried to relax a little.

While Gunner had confronted Jason, no one noticed Tool had slipped out of the room and came back carrying a stack of folders and paper.

"This is all the info that we have on Green. Grab some paper and start looking for possible locations where he could have taken them. I'll get the coffee going"

All the team complied and started going through the mountain of paperwork that they had on Green.

If the expendables didn't find the girls, it would be their greatest failure.

12 Hours later and they were still no closer to knowing where Green had taken the girls and time was running out. With every second that time passed, Gunner was becoming more anxious and it was only a matter of time before he blew up.

Toll was the first one to explode and threw his pile of papers across the room is frustration.

Tool went over and wrapped his arm around Toll's shoulder to comfort him. "We'll find them. I know it's hard brother but you have to stay strong for Emily."

"What kind of a father am I? I let that pathetic excuse of a women get custody so many times and she's had a fucked up life her since. I should have fought harder every time that judge said no. If I had, maybe she wouldn't have had such a fucked up life and been through so much shit."

Tool squeezed his friend's shoulder tighter in response. "You did help her. You helped her escape most nights from that hellhole, made sure she got to school and protected her from low lives her mom used to bring home. Yes she may have had a fucked up life but if it wasn't for you, she could have been addicted to drugs herself and been a teenage mom by now. The girls a saint compared to what she could have been with just her mom."

"I guess but…" Toll started to reply but Tool cut him off.

"No buts! You're a great father and this time when the court case comes, use everything you've got if you feel this way."

Toll looked like he was going to reply but instead gave Tool a quick embrace. Silently thanking him.

"Hey guys, I think I found something!" Yang shouted from across the room.

The whole team rushed over and Barney took control. "What you got?"

"Mr Green's real was Roger Carter. It turns out that Green registered his real name, Roger Carter, on a birth certificate of his daughter named Leah Carter." Yang replied.

Realisation dawned on Tool. "That's the girl who was trying to make life hell for the girls at school. Popular queen bee wanted to show her dominance."

"She could have been keeping tabs on them and would explain how they knew about the soccer game. There's no way this is a coincidence." Caesar said from beside Barney.

"That's what I thought. So instead of looking for properties registered under Mr Green, I started looking under Mr Carter." Yang replied.

"Did you find anything!" Gunner demanded.

"Yeah I found 3. A property in Miami beach, an apartment in New York City and a cabin in Canada."

"It can't be the apartment or the beach house. They're to public to hide 3 people in. The cabin would be the ideal place." Lee replied.

"That's what I thought. It's secluded with an underground warehouse and no body around for miles."

Barney straighten up and was now in alpha mode. "It's our best chance right now. Let's go! I want wheels up in 30 minutes."

Everyone dashed towards their bikes and were soon speeding out of the shop towards in the hanger. As Tool went over to his bike, Barney grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Tool I need you here, just encase."

Tool knew what he meant but couldn't bring himself to say the words. "Hopefully it won't come to that brother. Now go get our girls."

Barney couldn't say the words either. He gave Tool a nod in response and jumped on his bike to go to the hanger and made it in record time despite the heavy early Sunday afternoon traffic. Once Barney arrived at the hanger, he found that all the team were in their combat suites and were busy loading the plane with everything that they would need. Nothing was being left to chance for this operation. He quickly disappeared to change himself but he had one more thing to do before they left. He quickly fished out his cell phone and made a phone call he one day knew he would regret. After the call was done he then went to join the others and when he came back, the plane was loaded and the team were sat waiting on the plane anxiously. Gunner, Toll and Caesar sat with their heads in their hands and an awkward silence soon filled the plane.

Moving towards the cockpit to join Lee, Barney quickly completed pre-flight checks and they were in the air flying towards Canada. Just as they reached cruising altitude, the satellite phone rang.

"Did you get the details?" Barney asked down the phone.

"Yeah I'm sending you the coordinates just now. There's also a private airstrip 10 miles from the cabins location. That should be enough to give you the element of surprise. There are also some abandoned trucks you can use instead of hiking 10 miles." Trench replied from down the phone.

"Thanks Trench"

"Get them back safely. You owe me now Barney." Trench replied.

Barney didn't reply and hung up the phone. He hated owing that asshole but if it got the girls back he would do anything.

Like Tool, Barney had seen the girls grow from innocent babies into strong independent women. They weren't just daughters of his work colleagues but they were like family to him as well and ultimately it was up to him to bring their dad's home safely. He just hoped that they weren't to late to get them home safely.

Lee took the coordinates off Barney's cell phone and planned a route for the destination while Barney went to tell the others.

"We've got a 10 hour flight before we arrive in Canada. We got a private airstrip 10 miles from the cabin but it gives us the element of surprise. When we land, grab what you can and we move as quick as we can."

Yang gave him a nod in response but the three others returned to sitting with their heads in their hands.

Caesar had called his wife and told her that something had happened and to stay away from New Orleans until he said so. He had also promised her that Sam was safe and he would protect her. Now what was he suppose to say? Oh sorry baby, our daughter was a target but I kept her safe and then she snuck out and got caught! That would result in the divorce papers being filed automatically. When they got the girls back, he would just have to pray that she understood why he didn't tell her and then after Samantha would be in serious shit! The girl had been a firecracker from as long as he could remember. She was a kind and caring person but if they pissed her off, you had to take cover before you felt her wrath. They had tried anger management techniques and given her every form of punishment but nothing worked and she spent more time grounded than free. The only people that seemed to keep her calm were Cleo and Emily. They managed to calm her down before her fuse went off and stopped bad situations becoming worse. When they got the girls back, Caesar made a promise to himself to help Sam more with her lashing out and talk to her more. He wasn't as close to her as Gunner and Toll were with their daughters and it was about time that changed.

Gunner sat silently feeling mixed emotions. He was angry with Cleo for disobeying him and sneaking out for some stupid soccer game. She had never done anything like this before and it shocked him. Gunner felt guilty as well because he knew he was the cause of this. If he had actually shown up to events like he said he would, this wouldn't have happened and they would all be back at the shop laughing and enjoying themselves. Then there was the part of him that was proud of Cleo. She had stood up for herself, fought for what she believed in and not listened to anyone else. Something that he and Rebecca had told her to do from day 1. Mostly Gunner was worried sick to his stomach. Green was a cold-hearted bastard who was capable of anything as proved 10 years ago when he carved his face like a pig. What would he do to his little girl? When they got the girls back, Gunner didn't know whether to hug Cleo or punish her for the rest of her life.

After what seemed like an eternity, Barney was finally landing the plane in Canada and everyone was eager get to moving.

Once landed, the team quickly carried as much as they could out of the plane. Just as Trench had said, there were a few abandoned trucks and luckily the biggest one still had fuel inside it and was easy to jump-start. So far so good. Barney and Lee jumped in the front of the truck and the others jumped into the back and held on for life as Barney sped away.

When they were half a mile away, Barney stopped and hid the truck in the woods and they continued on foot. Soon they found the cabin that had to be Green's as there was nothing else around for miles. They made their way towards what they assumed was the font entrance and got low on the ground. There was no sound coming from house and by the looks of it there were no guards or henchmen around. Green hadn't been expecting them at all and had now left himself vulnerable. Barney signalled for them to storm the place once he had broken the door down but the door was unlocked. Instead of kicking it in, the expendables just walked in and were ready encase it was a trap and Green knew they were coming. They stood in the living room area and all shared a look of confusion as to what Green was playing at but then they heard a noise coming from a closet in the hallway.

"Ok girls, let's begin round two!" a voice barked but they all knew it was Green's

Gunner was about to run towards the noise to ensure his little girl wasn't tortured any further but Barney caught the look in his eyes and stood in front of him, with his hands on his shoulders, before Gunner got the chance to move.

"Gunner no!" Barney whispered encase Green heard him. "If you barge through there, god knows what Green will do to Cleo. We'll get her but you've got to calm down."

Gunner gave a grunt in response to Barney and relaxed his body. Green had said round two which meant he had done something earlier to the girls and there was no telling what it was. He knew Barney was right. If he barged in, Green could have a gun and fire it as soon as Gunner was in the door. If they snuck in, they could attack when he was away from the girls. All he wanted was his daughter back safe with him.

Knowing Gunner wasn't going to do anything stupid, Barney lead the others out into the hallway and found the closet where the noise came from. The door slowly creaked open and there was a flight of stairs that everyone assumed went to the underground warehouse. One by one they all followed barney down the steps, guns at the ready. Once at the bottom, they came into a small room which had a door at end of it, where a dull light could be seen through the half opened door. Barney motioned for them to move forward and when they reached the other door, they split into two teams. Half went right and the rest went left. They stayed in the shadows of the room and we're shocked at what they saw.

In the middle of the room, Cleo, Emily and Sam, were sitting on chairs with their arms tied behind their backs and their legs tied to the chairs. A Halogen light was behind each chair and it showed each girl was bleeding from somewhere and were bruised. Cleo still had her bandages on from her soccer injury and they were now soaked with blood. Green stalked in front of them, grinning viciously.

"Ok round one was just a taster. Let's kick things up a notch." Green said as he turned away from the girls.

"GO TO HELL!" Emily screamed back at him.

Tool sat in his position shaking his head, knowing that Emily had just earned herself extra torture. God damn that mouth of hers.

Green turned back to the girls and stared at Emily. He then walked up to her and punch her in her ribcage, making her double over in agony.

"Sweetheart, I'm looking forward to it." Green reply.

Green then turned away from the girls and walked away to table in front of them. The team knew that this was the only chance that they would get before Green started to abuse the girls again. Barney signalled to Lee and Yang who were on either side of him, to move in and get Green. When they did this, Gunner, Toll and Caesar would move in and get the girls free.

Yang moved silently forward, staying in the shadows. In flash, he shot forward and kicked Green to the ground, who was surprised that he was no longer alone with girls. Lee hauled him to his feet and held a knife to his throat as Barney stood in front of him. Barney glanced behind Green and seen the other men untie their daughters from the chairs that they sat on.

Green was smiling as if he had won an award. "Well that didn't quite work like I thought. Oh well at least I got some fun out of this."

Barney saw red and hit him square in the face. "You sick bastard!"

"Well if you all had done your job right in the first place. This wouldn't have happened!" Green spat back as he tried to escape from Lee's grip.

"Yeah and we're not gonna make the same mistake again."

Barney grabbed his gun from its holder and shot Green in the head, killing him instantly. Lee released him and his body feel to the floor with a thud.

Barney, Lee and Yang gave a sigh of relief and turned around to see if the girls were ok. Their dads had just finished to free them and hugging them.

"What took you guys so long?" Emily asked as she turned away from Toll.

"Sorry but we didn't think you'd sneak out of the shop when we said we're all under house arrest." Barney replied with a sarcastic tone.

Emily smiled at his in response, knowing that they were lucky to be rescued, as they didn't know where they were. "Well that will do as an apology but can we please go home now?"

All the team gave a slight chuckle of relief. The girls were safe and Green was dead. Job done.

"Yeah let's go." Barney said as he gave Emily a one armed hug.

Cleo was so relieved that the expendables had found them. They had only been prisoners for a short time but Green had made sure to make the time count and now her nose injury wasn't the only one she had. A quick trip to the hospital and everything would be ok and then it was time to fix what she had said to her dad. When she seen it was him that was cutting her free from the chair, she had wanted to cry. After wishing he was dead and she hating him, he had still come for her and saved her. Cleo would do anything to make this better, as it was her in the wrong, not him.

Cleo was about to turn and hug him again but she froze in horror at what she saw. Leah was standing on the edge of the shadows of the room holding a gun and she was now the one wanting revenge as she glanced at her father's dead body. She was now looking back towards the group and raised her gun towards Emily, who had walked off to the side slightly.

Cleo didn't know what came over her but she had to do something. She was the reason that her friends were kidnaped and tortured but she wouldn't be the reason that one of them died.

Cleo ran as fast as she could towards Emily.

"NNOOO!" She screamed as she pushed her out the way.

BANG!

TO BE CONTINUED

 **Hope you liked it. Please remember to leave a review.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey everyone. Here you go, chapter 8 finally! I was thinking of another story for the expendables. There are more details at the bottom. Please read and Review.**

Nobody had realised what had happened until Cleo was on the floor bleeding from the bullet wound.

"No!" Gunner matched her words and rushed over to his daughter. Barney and yang rushed over and tried to see where the bullet had hit Cleo.

Leah had now come out of the shadows and still had her gun in her hand.

"Well I might not have killed the bitch I wanted but one dead bitch is better than zero."

Sam and Emily were shaking with rage at what she was saying and she had just shot their best friend. She was just as bad as her father and deserved to die. Sam looked around and spotted her dad's revolver in its holster. Without thinking, she grabbed it and fired it at Leah.

BANG!

A look of shock crossed Leah's face as she had expected to make their pain last longer but instead she lost as well. Like her father, she feel to the floor with a thud and her life was over.

"Ding dong, the bitch is dead." Emily said flatly.

Everyone pretended not to hear her and rushed over to where Cleo lay.

"Cle come on, look at me," Gunner was shouting at Cleo as he held her in his arms and as she tried to keep her eyes open.

"Pappa jag är ledsen" Cleo said so quietly it was like a whisper as her eyes closed. _Daddy I'm sorry_

"Cleo no! Come on open your eyes. Don't leave me!" Gunner shouted at her again, shaking her slightly.

Yang was putting pressure on the wound on Cleo's stomach. "She's still alive just now but the bullets hit a major vein and she's bleeding a lot. We gotta go now!" Yang barked at the others.

Everyone understood how serious this could now be and started making their way out of the warehouse and back to the truck that they had abandoned. Gunner scooped Cleo up into arms and used his hand to keep pressure on her wound at the same time and ran behind the others. Caesar and Toll had also carried Emily and Sam as they were slow from the beating they had gotten earlier from Green.

Once they reached the truck, Barney and Lee had jumped in the front, while the others climbed in the back. Gunner laid Cleo down with her head on his lap and the rest of her was lying on Yang. Her wound was still bleeding but was easing but he was just hoping that they could get her help in time. Barney made it back to the plane in record time and when he screeched to a halt, everyone rushed into the plane and they were in the air in minutes heading home.

Once Toll had made sure Emily was ok, he got blankets from one of the storage cupboards and laid them in the middle of the plane, so Gunner could lay Cleo down. Gunner had been reluctant to lie her down and wanted to keep her close to him encase she slipped away but he knew Yang could monitor her more closely lying down. Reluctantly he gently laid her down on the blankets, just like he had done when she was a baby when he put her in her crib and Yang began to double-check her. Yang wasn't a doctor but he had the most medical training out of all the team and he treated everyone if they we're injured. He went over to the medical storage unit and brought out an IV, an oxygen tank, mask and more bandages. He slowly placed the IV in Cleo's hand, put the oxygen mask over her mouth and bandaged up her stomach as best he could.

"She's ok for now but we have to get her to hospital as soon as we land. Then." Yang started saying but Gunner interrupted him.

"How long?" Gunner shouted at no one in particular.

"8 hours." Barney shouted back from he cockpit, knowing exactly what Gunner was asking.

Gunner groaned at the back of his throat at Barney's answer. "Make it quicker." He shouted back at Barney as he returned back to look at Cleo.

Barney didn't say anything in response but pushed the plane even harder than he already was to get back home quicker. He knew Cleo needed the hospital but he also knew that Gunner was unreachable right now. His little girl was lying unconscious in front of him and was possibly dying. She was the only thing he had left in his life and now that she was dying, Gunner didn't care what else was going on around him or what people were around him. Once they got Cleo to a hospital he would relax a little and once she was healed, he would be back to his normal self again but until then he was a different person.

Barney got the satellite phone out and hit 1 on the speed dial.

"Tool?" Barney asked.

"Hey Brother. Tell me good news." Tool replied.

"Not exactly."

The line went silent before Tool spoke again. "Were we to late?"

"No, we got them back but Cleo's been shot. She's alive but needs a hospital the second we land."

Barney heard Tool let out a sigh of relief on the other end. "Roger that. I'll be here when you land and I'll contact Adam for help."

"Thanks Tool. Also bring Jason with you. He can help the others while we go to the hospital." Barney said.

"Got it. How's Gunner holding up?"

"As you'd expect."

Tool didn't need Barney to go into detail. He knew how much Gunner loved that girl and how broken he was when Rebecca died. If anything happened to Cleo, history would repeat itself but would be worse this time.

"Ok, call before you land brother. See you soon." Tool replied and both men ended the call.

An eerie silence soon filled the plane. Lee and Barney both stared out the window and only spoke when they had to give each other information. In the cabin, both Emily and Sam had fallen asleep against their dad's who were holding them close and glad that they we're back safely with a few bruises. Yang was altering between sitting on his seat and checking Cleo to make sure she was still alive which so far she was but he hoped their luck didn't change. Gunner was now sat on the floor beside Cleo, holding her hand and making sure she was still breathing as well. Occasionally he would say something in Swedish to her hoping that she could hear him and listen to what he was saying. Nobody spoke to Gunner or made eye contact with him, knowing that he just needed to focus on Cleo right now and he didn't want to hear words of sympathy from anyone right now. One wrong look or word could easily set him off.

After what felt like days, Barney had come into the cabin to let them know that they were 20 minutes out from New Orleans and Tool was standing by for them. They all agreed that Emily and Sam should go to the hospital as well to get checked out for any injuries, while Jason came to help Yang and Lee unloaded the plane.

Yang carefully removed the IV from Cleo's hand and removed the oxygen mask from her face. It was only a short distance to the hospital and she would be ok until they got there.

Barney landed the plane effortlessly and taxied into the hanger where Tool and Jason were waiting for them. Once the plane was in the hanger, Gunner scooped Cleo up in his arms and waited for Barney to open the ramp.

"Nästan där prinsessa. Dö inte på mig nu." Gunner whispered softly to her as he waited. _Almost there princess. Don't die on me now._

Barney finally dropped the ramp and Gunner ran out with Cleo and jumped straight into the back of Tool's van. Barney followed with Toll, Caesar, Emily and Sam all climbing in the van and within seconds they we're speeding out of the hanger to the hospital.

As the van sped away, Lee, Yang and Jason stood silently thinking about the events that had happened over the last few hours and hoped that the outcome was going to be good.

Lee let out a sigh and turned to the other two. "Come on guys, you heard Barney. Let's get this piece of junk unpacked and secured."

Yang and Jason followed him into the plane and began to unpack everything.

Gunner paced up and down the private waiting room that he and Barney were in. They had arrived at the hospital and Cleo was snatched from his arms and taken away to surgery straight away. It had now been four hours and they hadn't heard anything, which was now making Gunner even more agitated than he was on the plane ride home.

Emily and Sam had also been taken away when they arrived but Toll and Caesar were aloud to go with them as a doctor was just examining them.

"Gunner sit down. You're making me dizzy." Barney said as he looked down at the floor.

Gunner ignored him and continued to pace around the room while they waited for news about Cleo. Finally a doctor entered the private waiting room and greeted them.

Barney's old army buddy, Adam Burns, was the chief of surgery at the hospital they always went to. Adam owed Barney a favour and if the team needed medical help, Adam helped to slip it under the radar and get them the help they needed. Each time it was a new doctor so they nothing looked suspicious.

The doctor studied his chart before looking at them. "Hi I'm doctor Clark. Which one of you is Gunner Jensen?"

"I am. How is my daughter?" Gunner almost shouted at the doctor he was so anxious.

Doctor Clark seemed a bit scared of Gunner and stuttered slightly when he answered him. "Well the good news is that your daughter survived the surgery. The bullet wound ruptured a major artery and caused severe blood loss but fortunately we were able to repair the rupture and did a blood transfusion. She's alive just now."

Gunner tensed up at his last words. "What do you mean by just now?"

Doctor Clark let out a sigh before he answered Gunner. "Your daughter's heart stopped for 10 minutes during surgery and during that time there could have been some brain damaged caused. Everything looks ok just now however all we can do now is monitor your daughter and wait until she wakes up."

"So your telling me she's alive but in a few days it could change and I have to wait for that to happen or she could still die!" Gunner hissed at the doctor.

"I'm afraid so Mr Jensen but we are doing everything we can to help your daughter."

Gunner stood frozen trying to process everything he had just been told. They had made it through the worst 8 hours of his life and now after getting Cleo safely to a hospital, they were telling him she might not live. It couldn't happen like this! He had lost the love of his life and now he might lose his daughter too.

"Can I see her?" Gunner almost whispered.

"Of course follow me. Also I know your daughter's name from somewhere but I can't for the life of me figure out where from." Doctor Clark replied as he turned to walk out the door.

"She's not famous so I don't know where you'd know it." Gunner replied getting agitated at the doctor wishing he would just be quiet and take him to see Cleo.

Clark seemed to get the message and didn't say another word. Gunner and Barney followed him to a private room where Cleo was being kept. This ward had 4 private rooms with a main nurses station and one nurse per patient to look after. There were also two large private waiting rooms to be used by visitors of the patients which would come in handy for the team to use when they visited Cleo. Clark took them to the furthest away room and he let Gunner go in first to see Cleo while he checked information with the nurse responsible for monitoring her. Barney followed in after him.

Cleo lay still on the bed and her colour was almost the same colour as the white bed sheets except for part of her face. Under her eyes and the bridge of her nose were angry purple colours. There was a massive bandage covering her stomach from the surgery. There was an oxygen mask over her face and her nose was bandaged up as well. Her arms and face we're also bruised and cut from the beating that Green had given her.

Gunner had pulled a chair over to the bed and was now sitting holding Cleo's hand and whispering to her softly. Barney collapsed on the chair on the other side of bed and finally realised how tired he was.

He could have drifted off but Clark came back into the room to give them an update.

"I just got the latest from the nurses." Doctor Clark said as Barney looked at him but Gunner remained focused on Cleo.

"Everything looks good from the surgery and we shouldn't need to operate again. Miss Jensen also has 3 broken ribs, a sprained wrist, a bruised cheek along with some cuts and bruises. It will take time but everything should heal when she wakes up."

Barney acknowledged the doctors information for Gunner as he was hadn't taken his eyes away from Cleo but Barney knew that he had heard everything.

"Also doctor Burns advised that this was an attack and we also did a rape exam to cover all possibilities. I'm afraid she was also raped as there is evidence of sexual intercourse and we recovered a DNA sample for testing."

An animal sounding growl escape from Gunner's throat and Barney was thankful that no one was in his path right now. If they were in his path, Gunner would have done some serious damage to cope with the news that he had just been given.

Barney once again acknowledge the doctor. "Thanks doc. I take it Burns has given anytime visiting hours?"

"Oh yes, he said that you and your team can bend the rules when it comes to visiting hours." Doctor Clark replied with a slight chuckle before he turned his attention to Gunner. "Also I'll have the nurse set up a bed for you in here Mr Jensen. Your daughter's still under 18 so parents can stay with their children."

Gunner once again acted like he didn't hear Clark and keep his eyes on Cleo but he was grateful that they were going to let him stay with her.

Barney stuck his hand out to shake Clark's hand and Clark shook it in response. Clark was about to leave the room but turned back to Barney. " I finally figured where I know this girl from." He slipped a newspaper clipping from the clipboard and handed it to Barney. "Her nose was only fractured like it says and not broken. I'm surprised she never suffered a concussion as well but at least the nose injury will heal as well."

Barney had no idea what he was talking about and just gave him a nod in response. Once Clark left, Barney collapsed back on the chair he was sitting on and looked at the newspaper clipping. As he read it, a huge smile appeared on his face and he knew that Gunner had to read it now.

"Gunner you need to see this." Barney as he reluctantly got up and handed Gunner the clipping.

Barney leaned back in his chair and watched as Gunner's face changed as he read the clipping.

JENSEN LEADS JESTERS TO VICTORY!

 _The pressure was on for the female under 18's Jester's soccer team to win their first ever state championship on Saturday. The team was full of amazing players but one player stood out from them all. Cleo Jensen. Having only been in the team for about a year, she has scored over 50% of the goals this season and a key player in getting to this point of the tournament. When it came to it, she didn't disappoint. As the game got under way, Miss Jensen scored 2 out of the 3 goals that got the Jester's the championship. Despite taking a head injury resulting in a fractured nose from another player, she was even able to walk onto the pitch and collect the trophy for her team and celebrate with them. However the celebrations didn't stop there! Talent scouts had attended the game and three players were offered scholarships including Miss Jensen. These girls have done the city proud and have brilliant futures ahead of them in playing soccer professional!_

Just below the clipping, there was a picture of Cleo at the game and she was in mid air about to kick the ball.

The article was too much for Gunner and it pushed him to breaking point. The tears were rolling down his face and he couldn't stop them falling.

"This is why she snuck out." He stuttered.

"It wasn't any old game but a championship to show how good she was. This is all my fault! If I had listened to her and not treated her like shit, I could have gone with her and protected her from Green. If she wakes up and hates me, I won't blame her but I'll hate myself forever."

"Gunner stop!" Barney said in a firm but comforting voice. "Even if she had told you about the game, it still wouldn't have been a good idea to let her go. Green was watching them for months and would have taken them no matter what. Lock down was the best option no matter what and I'm sure that when Cleo wakes up, she won't hate you. She'll still love you and regret what she said to you."

He had only ever seen Gunner this emotional once before. When they had tied him to a chair and made him crack over Rebecca's death and helped him to overcome his drug addiction once again.

Gunner sat silently before he answered. "If she doesn't make it, I'm finished!"

Barney knew that he was being deadly serious right now. When Rebecca had died, Gunner had gone MIA and was unreachable by the team. Cleo was the only thing that kept him from overdosing or intentionally getting killed. If Cleo died, there would be nothing for him to live for and history would repeat itself but it would be worse this time. When Gunner said he was finished if she died, he meant his time would come to an end as well as he would have nothing to live for.

The room fell silent as Barney sank back into his chair and Gunner went back to looking at Cleo. A knock at the door interrupted them.

Both men turned around and seen Toll, Emily, Caesar and Samantha standing in the doorway.

"Hey guys. How are you both doing?" Barney asked as he gestured for them all to come in the room.

"We're ok. Just a few cuts and bruises along with two cracked ribs." Sam replied as she sat down on a chair.

"Speak for yourself! I got more injuries than you did." Emily said as she sat down as well.

"It's not a competition Em." Toll said as he shot her a look that said, "cool it"

"How is she?"

"The bullet ruptured a major artery in her stomach. She went to surgery to repair it and had a blood transfusion, so apart from a few buts and bruises, she's ok but we've just got to wait for her to wake up now." Gunner stuttered without taking his eyes off Cleo. "They're gonna let me stay with her as well.

"Gunner you should go home for a bit, you look like shit. You to Barn." Toll said looking at his friends.

Barney stood up to leave, happy that he could go and get some sleep. He noticed that Gunner hadn't moved. "Come on Gunner."

"I can't leave her. She needs me." Gunner said.

"Gunner she's sleeping. You need to get a bag packed and showered so that when she wakes up you'll be here for her. I'll take you and bring you back." Caesar moved and placed his hand on Gunner's shoulder.

"What if she wakes up while I'm gone?"

"We'll stay with her Uncle Gun." Emily said.

Gunner knew he had to leave as he was still in his combat gear and he smelled really bad. Knowing that if Cleo woke up and her best friends were there made him feel a little better and he reluctantly got up, kissed Cleo on her forehead and walked slowly to the door.

"Call me if anything changes!"

"We will." Sam said as she and Emily moved closer to Cleo's bed.

Barney turned back the girls. "I'm happy you girls are ok." Barney said. He drew in a breath as he asked his next question. "Did Green rape you girls as well as Cleo."

Sam and Emily both look at each other, shocked at his question.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"The doctor said that Cleo was raped. Did he do the same to you guys?" Barney asked them.

"What are you talking? Cleo wasn't raped." Emily replied.

Now it was Barney's turn to looked confused. "Are you sure?" Gunner had also looked up slightly now.

"Yes! We were kept in the same room and we were together at all times. He never took one of us away separately. I'm telling you that Cleo was 100% not raped!" Emily said now getting annoyed at Barney.

Gunner's express had now changed from relief to shock. Everyone knew that if Cleo wasn't raped, She had willingly had sex before they we're kidnapped.

The question was though, who was it?

TO BE CONTINUED

 **So will Cleo survive being shot? Also is Cleo and Jason's secret about to be revealed? All shall be revealed.**

 **Also thinking about doing some stories of when Cleo was growing up or stories around Gunner and Becca. If you want some of these stories leave a message in the comments below.**

 **Happy Christmas**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi everyone. New chapter time, hope you like it.**

After an hour away from the hospital, Gunner was finally back and heading towards Cleo's room. He had showered, changed and packed a bag hopefully with enough clothes so that he didn't have to go back home again without Cleo. He had also reluctantly called Mandy and told her that Cleo was in hospital but didn't go in the full details. Gunner hadn't wanted to tell her but she had a right to know, even if it caused him more pain and misery. She had gone crazy over the phone and had promised to be on the next flight out to New Orleans.

As he entered the private ward, Gunner paused outside Cleo's room as he heard Sam and Emily talking.

"All the main jock's were at the game as well. Do you think it could be the captain of the boys soccer team?"

"No, remember he dates that girl from the volleyball team. What about the captain of the football team?"

"Nah, he's going out with the head cheerleader. I don't know who it could be."

"Me either. Why didn't she tell us? I thought that we had no secrets between us."

"There is probably a good reason that she didn't tell us. He must be a geek."

"Yeah probably."

They were obviously trying to figure out who Cleo's mystery man was. Gunner had thought about it for a bit as well but the thought caused him more pain. Up until yesterday he thought his little princess was perfect: Sweet, kind, caring, well behaved and innocent. However it now seemed she wasn't as innocent and well behaved as he thought and had it just been a one-time thing or had it been more than once.

When she woke up, he would talk to her about it but right now he put it to the back of his mind and went back to hoping that she would wake up soon.

Taking a deep breath, he composed himself and walked into the room.

"Hey uncle Gun." Emily said as she and Sam turned around when they heard him come in the room.

"Hi girls. Did she wake up when I was way?" Gunner replied as he resumed his position beside Cleo's bed. A mattress had now been set up in the corner for Gunner to sleep on but he didn't imagine he would use it much.

"No. Sleeping beauty clearly needs her beauty sleep." Emily chuckled.

"My princess is already beautiful." Gunner murmured as he held Cleo's hand.

"We should leave you guys alone." Sam said as she stood up and Emily looked at her in agreement.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to." Gunner said as both girls made to leave the room.

"We need to go home and shower. We stink and look like shit." Emily pointed at herself to emphasis her point. "We can come back after we go home to freshen up if you want?"

"Yeah. Cleo's gonna need you guys here when she wakes up."

Emily and Sam quickly looked at each other and then looked back to Gunner. They both knew that with her soccer injury and the beating from Green combined with being shot, there was no way Cleo was waking up anytime soon.

"She'll need us all. We'll be back soon." Sam said and the two of them turned and left the room.

Once they left, Gunner turned back to look at Cleo and his heart once again melted away.

"Please wake up princess. It's just me here and I promise I'm not mad at you and you're not in trouble." Gunner whispered to her as he held her hand.

As he whispered to her, Gunner was telling the truth. He had been planning to give Cleo a small lecturer about what she had done but now she had been shot and he knew how important the game was to her. He had felt so many emotions on that plane ride when they were heading to Canada to save the girls but now all he felt was angst. The only living person who he loved unconditionally had been shot trying to save one of her best friends because they had been kidnapped when he hadn't listened to her. Everyone would tell him that it wasn't his fault and he was doing the right thing to protect his daughter but Gunner knew the truth. If he had listened and paid attention to Cleo, he could have protected her and she could have gone to the game without being kidnapped.

He had broken his promise and he didn't know if he could fix it.

A few hours passed and Gunner barely heard the small knock on the door.

"Hey Brother." Tool said as Gunner looked up and saw him standing in the doorway.

"Hey Tool."

Tool walked in the room and was followed by the whole team, Emily, Jason and Sam. "How's our girl doing?" He asked sitting on the nearest chair he could find.

"She's not woken up yet, so it's still just a waiting game." Gunner replied softly as he returned his attention back to Cleo.

"She will. She's just getting more stubborn like her father." Lee said and everyone laughed at him, including Gunner.

"God help us!" Barney said from his seat in the corner. "Two fiery Jensen's is all we need."

Everyone was laughing again until a commotion in the nurse's station broke up the fun.

"I don't have time for your question's!"

"Ma'am please it's just for security."

"Fine. I'm her Aunt. Now where is my niece?"

"Miss Jensen is in room 1 at the end."

"Thank you!"

Everyone looked to confused as to what was going on but Gunner knew exactly what was happening.

Mandy was here!

The squeaky voice and rude attitude told him exactly that it was her and he now had seconds to prepare for the storm. Within 2 seconds she had appeared at the doorway and her eyes went straight for him. The team looked at her confused, as they had never seen her before and wondered who she was.

Gunner got up off his chair and took a step towards Mandy but she was quicker and strode towards him.

SLAP!

When she was inches away from him, Mandy had slapped him so hard on his left cheek that his head jerked to the side and it felt like he had whiplash.

"What happened to her? You told me that you would take care of her and now look where we are!" Mandy spat at him.

Everyone in the room had froze in shock and fear at what had just happened. A strange women had come in and slapped the most volatile man they knew. Everyone waited nervously for his reaction, fearing that he might explode with rage.

Gunner's cheek was bright red from the attack and to everyone's surprise, he didn't explode with rage.

"She was in a car accident with friends. They had to operate for internal bleeding." Gunner replied calmly. Everyone had agreed that the most believable story for Cleo's injuries was being in a car accident with her friends. The only one's who knew the truth were the team and her doctor.

"You shouldn't have let her go. Teenager drivers are always the one's in accidents." Mandy again spat at him with her anger growing every second.

Gunner was slowly getting angrier as well. "I'm not going to stop her having fun with her friends. It was an accident."

"Rebecca was having fun working away on the boat and that was an accident. If Cleo dies, how are you gonna feel then." Mandy had now erupted and was now purposely pushing his buttons.

Gunner lost his cool with her last words and erupted as well. "Don't even fucking start! Becca's death was a freak of nature and even if she was still alive, she wouldn't have stopped Cleo either." Gunner had had enough of her already and she had only been in the door for 5 minutes. He turned away from her and went to sit back in his chair beside Cleo.

She continued to stare at him as he turned away. "Well maybe my sister should have been a better mother but then again, you weren't exactly there half the time to help her, were you."

Gunner stopped halfway to sitting back in his chair and froze.

He always took all the insults that Mandy threw at him because he didn't care if she liked him or not, but he wouldn't let her insult Rebecca. Becca had been the best mother to Cleo and was the reason Cleo had turned into the person that she was today. She was practically a single mother as he stayed in New Orleans half of the time and she had done a fantastic job by herself. Mandy could criticise her sisters clothes, job or friends but he wouldn't let her criticise Becca's parenting skills.

Gunner's face was red with anger but luckily Barney seen him before he had turned back to face Mandy. Knowing that Gunner was no longer calm, he jumped off his seated and stood between them to protect Mandy and stop Gunner doing something he'd regret.

"That's enough!" Barney said in his alpha tone, looking between them. "You two may not like each other and that's fine but right now we're here for Cleo. The last thing she'll want is to wake up and find you two fighting. If you want to shout at each other then go outside and not around Cleo. Got it."

Mandy and Gunner continued to stare at each other. They knew that Barney was right and their hatred for each other was clouding what was the most important thing.

Mandy finally broke eye contact with Gunner and raced over to the bed to look at Cleo for the first time. She began hugging and kissing Cleo madly and accidently made the IV slide out of Cleo's hand. Luckily a machine started making a loud noise and a nurse ran into the room to see what was wrong.

"Ma'am, please be careful." The nurse said as she re inserted the IV in Cleo's hand.

"Sorry." Mandy replied nicely to the nurse as she continued to smile at Cleo.

The nurse left the room and it suddenly dawned on Mandy that there were other people in the room.

"Who are you all?"

Barney stepped forward. "Hi I'm Barney Ross." Barney shook Mandy's hand, which she accepted. " This is Lee, Yang, Caesar, Toll, Emily, Tool, Samantha and Jason."

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Mandy, Cleo's Aunt. How do you all know her?"

Barney wasn't sure how to answer that without exposing their secret. "We work with Gunner." Barney pointed to all the men as he spoke. "And these three are our children." He then pointed at the two girls and Jason.

Mandy was once again angry and turned back to Gunner. "It's bad enough the career you've chosen but your now making Cleo apart of it as well. Great job Gunner!" She said sarcastically.

"Shut the fuck up!" Gunner shouted at her. "You don't know these people and I'd never encourage Cleo to do what I do. She's safe and happy with me so calm down."

Mandy looked back to Cleo and let out a long breath. "When she wakes up, she's coming home to San Diego. I'll go through the courts and do it properly this time. If I could, I'd make it so you could never see her again and change her name to Williams, but I can't so you won't see her again until she's 18 and can make her own decisions."

"Ok and I'll do the same. She is home and she's not going anywhere. I'll fight you all the way this time.'

When Rebecca had died, Mandy had taken Cleo to San Diego to live with her and because he was on a booze and drug bender, he never tried to get her back. It was only with the teams help to get clean that he got her back and he was happier again when she came home. History wasn't going to repeat itself and he was ready this time.

Gunner wasn't going to loose Cleo again.

"Let's just let the court decide about that!" Mandy spat at him again and went back to focusing on Cleo.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Five days passed and there had been no change in anything.

Cleo still hadn't woken up yet. The nurses did checks everyday and gave her a CT and MRI scan. Both had come back clear and Dr Clark had said it was still just a waiting game to when she would wake up but that they would continue to monitor her closely.

Gunner and Mandy were still at loggerheads with each other and it was getting worse each day. Mandy had also wanted to stay with Cleo but the hospital's policy wouldn't allow it and Gunner was glad. Instead she had got a room at the hotel across the street and was at the hospital as much as she could during visiting hours. Barney was worried that if Mandy kept pushing Gunner's buttons that he would go back to the old Gunner and do something he'd regret. To make sure that this didn't happen, at least one member of the team was always with them to act as a peacemaker and stop them from killing each other.

Sam and Emily had visited as often as they could and had let all her teammates and boss know that she was "in a car crash." All of them had sent get well soon cards and the girls had placed them in Cleo hospital room. They had been given a week off school but on Monday they were going back and both were dreading it as it wouldn't feel right without Cleo. The three musketeers were temporality the dynamic duo.

In Cleo's room it was only Jason that was with her tonight. Mandy had gone back to her hotel for the night and apparently to contact her lawyer. Barney and Tool had almost dragged Gunner home to shower and sleep for a few hours. He had barley showered in last few days and was only sleeping for moments at a time and he looked like shit. Jason had offered to stay and Gunner had left happy that someone was with her.

"This is my fault." Jason said as he held Cleo's hand. "If I had been responsible and made you guys stay in the shop then we wouldn't be here. You would have been pissed at me and not fucked me but you'd be safe at least."

If Cleo died, he would feel guilty for the rest of his life for two reasons. First being that he shouldn't have taken the lock down so lightly and forced the girls to stay where they were or at least told the expendables what they were planning. Cleo wouldn't have gotten her scholarship but she would be alive and conscious. If she died, he would be the one responsible for her death.

The second reason would be that he never told Cleo how he really felt about her.

They hadn't seen each other in years and when they did meet again she wasn't what he was expecting. They stayed at her house as Gunner was away and wanted someone to stay with her. He volunteered, as he had nothing better to do. When he seen her she was beautiful and had a body could easily have been a model or actress on the cover of playboy. As they talked, she was funny and he could tell that she was a caring person about the people in her life. He had asked about her mom but seeing that she wasn't ready to talk about it, he dropped the subject quickly. They had gone to bed in separate rooms but he couldn't get her off his mind. When he heard her scream he ran through and comforted her until she calmed down. After she had calmed down, she looked at him with those amazing icy blue eyes and he couldn't help himself.

He started kissing her and was relieved she kissed him back. Soon they were naked and he took her innocence from her. He would have stopped if she wanted but she wanted to keep going and it was one of the best nights of his life. They had woken up the next morning and he made it clear to Cleo that it was a one off thing and sex didn't mean anything. He was too hot to have a girlfriend and he could happily have any girl he wanted by clicking his fingers. Luckily she had understood and wasn't upset with him. Jason had expected her to tell Emily and Sam but she didn't. Either she didn't trust them or knew that shit would get real if anyone found out. They had both acted like nothing had happened that night and remained friends.

However the next month when he came back to New Orleans to visit his dad, he saw Cleo and knew that he wanted her again. He had managed to get her alone and somewhere quiet where they could have sex again. He once again told her that nothing had changed and was just sex. She was happy to go with whatever it was they had and they had now lost count of the amount of times they had fooled around with each other.

There was one thing Jason hadn't told her. He didn't want a relationship as he wanted to play the field and be a ladies man. However after the third time he and Cleo had had sex, he stopped doing it with other woman as all he could think about was her. He would be chatting to a girl in a bar and be ready to take her home but the girl would say or do something that reminded him of Cleo and he left the girl at the bar.

He was ready to commit himself to her. He wanted to speak to her everyday, talk about their days, shower her with gifts, take her out on proper dates. Most importantly he wanted to be able to tell the world that she was his and protect her. If they did become a couple they would have to reveal their secret to everyone and that would mean a beating from Gunner. To be fair he did deserve it but he would show Gunner that it was behind him and that he did really care about Cleo.

"Please wake up soon sweet cheeks. I have something to tell you. " Jason whispered softly to her as held her hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile Cleo found herself in a white room with nothing and no one around her.

"Hello. Is anyone here?" She shouted.

The only sound she got in reply was the echo of her own voice.

"Hhheeelllllooo?" Cleo shouted again in the hope that someone would respond to her.

"Cleo." A voice called from in the distance.

She quickly spun around in search of the voice but she couldn't find where it was coming from. She spun around again and she saw a figure appear who she thought she'd never see again.

"There's my little meatball." The figure spoke as it fully appeared in front of Cleo.

The tears were falling down Cleo's face before she knew it and ran towards the figure.

"Mom!'

TO BE CONTINUED.

 **Happy new year everyone. Please leave and review and I will update very soon.**


	10. Chapter 10

Cleo crashed into her mom and held her as tightly as she could as the tears fell heavier now.

"Sshh, it's ok. Just let it out." Rebecca said as she held Cleo tightly and brushed her fingers through Cleo's hair.

Cleo cried for a few more moments before she let her mom go and pulled away from her so that they were at arms length.

"I've missed you so much!" Cleo stuttered as fresh tears fell.

"Oh baby, I've missed you so much too." Rebecca replied as she too had tears in her eyes.

"Why did you have to go on that stupid trip?"

Rebecca let out a sigh before she answered Cleo. "It was my time Cleo. Trust me I didn't want to die but this is what fate had written for me."

"Still doesn't make it fair or ok though. I needed you." Cleo was now sounding angry at what her mom was telling her.

"I know you did but you don't need me anymore. You're strong, beautiful and independent women and if I had lived there would have been nothing else for me to show or teach you. We would still be best friends but my job as a mother was done. I didn't leave you alone either." As Rebecca spoke, her eyes lit up as she was almost crying with pride.

"You still have your dad. I know what he did when I died and I expected it but I knew he would see sense. I've seen him change so much since then and become an even better father than he was before."

Cleo had stopped crying now and her voice had stopped shaking. "I suppose so but it doesn't stop me missing you everyday."

"I'm always there, even if you can't see me. I'm always there."

Cleo smiled at her mom and then threw herself back into her mom's arms to hold her tightly again. Rebecca responded and hugged her tightly. After a few moments, realisation dawned on Cleo and she quickly pulled away from her mom.

"Wait a minute!" She said nervously. "If I can see you, does that mean I'm dead?"

Rebecca chuckled slightly at Cleo's question. "No you're not dead. You're in limbo, between life and death. I'm just here to help you find your way back."

"Well what if I don't want to go back?" Cleo crossed her arms over her chest to show she was being serious. "Maybe I'll choose death and stay here with you."

Rebecca smirked at her, knowing that she wasn't joking. "I thought you'd say that but you won't after I show you something."

Cleo looked at her confused. "Show me what?"

Without warning Rebecca grabbed her hand and suddenly they were no longer in the white room. Now when Cleo looked around her, she could see they were in the middle of some jungle but it was a war zone. A small army was advancing on what seemed to be a small cave built into a mountain. Cleo and her mom walked into the cave and they found the expendables reloading their weapons.

"We're trapped!" Yang shouted.

"I know. We need a plan." Barney replied reloaded his pistol.

As the expendables shouted ideas about a plan, Cleo noticed her dad had stayed slightly away from them and as she looked closer, she was shocked by his appearance. He looked like he had aged 10 years, with his hair longer and she could tell that he was hung-over and was high on some kind of drug. He silently slipped away towards the entrance to the cave and looked back to expendables.

"Well at least I'll die saving someone for once."

Before anyone knew what the hell he was talking about, Gunner turned and ran out the cave to the waiting army.

"Dad, No!" Cleo screamed even though she knew he couldn't hear her and it was to late anyway.

The sound of a dozen guns going off filled the cave and the sound of Gunner's dead body hitting the ground. The expendables quickly left the cave and took out the rest of the army and survived.

"Mom, what?" Cleo started to ask but before she could finish their surroundings changed again.

Even though Cleo was going to ask her mom what just happened, she already knew. Her mom was showing her a world where Cleo died and what that meant for everyone she knew. Her dad went back on the drugs and had decided to sacrifice himself to save his friends, as he had nothing else to live for now that Cleo and Rebecca were dead.

This time they were in what Cleo assumed to be a prison.

Her mom pointed to a cell over near the corner. "Over there."

Without even realising what she was doing, Cleo started walking over to the cell door and was shocked at what she saw.

Sam sat on the bed in the cell, looking like shit and fitting the picture of a hardened criminal.

"How?" Was all Cleo could ask, she was that shocked.

Rebecca was now standing beside Cleo and put her arm around her shoulders. "If you choose to die, Sam couldn't contain her anger anymore. During a confrontation, her anger got the best of her and she killed them. She does feel guilty for what she did but she can't take it back."

Whenever Sam was angry and frustrated, she would call Cleo if she was free to rant about the issue that was making her angry. Cleo always calmed her down and stopped her from doing anything stupid. If Cleo was dead, Sam wouldn't have that option anymore and would land herself in jail.

Without warning, her mom grabbed her hand again and their location changed once again.

Now they were standing in what looking like a garden, which was covered in flowers of different colours.

"Where are we now?" Cleo had no idea where they were and it gave her bad feeling.

Her mom looked at her for a moment before answering. "Cleo turn around."

Cleo did as her mom told her to do and what she saw almost made her sick. They were in a graveyard and the tombstone had the following name on it:

 **Emily Maria Road**

 **1997-2015**

 **Beloved daughter, sister and friend**

"What the hell?" Cleo shouted at her mom once she found her voice again.

"Watch the language Cleo!" Her mom scolded her.

"Without you there to tell Emily when to walk away and shut her mouth, she got into some pretty dangerous situations. Most of them she eventually got out of them but one time she wasn't so lucky. Instead of walking away, she kept shouted insults at people who confronted her and they shot her."

Fuck!

They always joked that if Cleo wasn't around to hold Emily back sometimes, she would either be dead or in jail. If Cleo choose to die, it would become a reality.

"Can we go mom?"

"Not yet." Rebecca walked back over to where Cleo was standing. "There's one more person we need to see."

Rebecca took Cleo's hand again and their surroundings changed.

They were standing in Mandy's house and Cleo guested she was the last person she had to see.

"Why are we in Aunt Mandy's bedroom?" Cleo asked confused as she realised where they where.

"Look closer."

Cleo did as she was told and looked closer at the bed. Her aunt was buried underneath the covers and crying her eyes out.

"Why is she so upset that I'm dead?" Cleo was confused. She knew her aunt would be upset if she died but she didn't realise she would be this upset.

Becca sighed and rested her hands on Cleo's shoulders. " I never told you this but Mandy has suffered from depression and anxiety most of her life. It started when our parents died when she was 16 and when I had just moved away to college and met your dad. She got better when I moved back to San Diego knowing that I was close to her again. Then when you were born she was the happiest I had ever seen her and I thought she had finally got better but then when we moved again she went through good periods and bad periods.

"So when you died, I guess I was the only thing that keep her from completely breaking down?" Cleo asked.

"Yes." Becca replied. "She was devastated when I died but the only thing that kept her going was you. That's why she's so clingy and protective of you because you're the only family she has left and doesn't want to loose you and why she also hates your dad."

"What do you mean?" Cleo asked confused.

"Did you think Aunt Mandy doesn't like your dad just because he's a mercenary?"

Cleo nodded in response to her mom.

"That's only part of it. The real reason is because she blames Gunner for taking us away from her and that's why she was so reluctant to give you back to him after I died."

Her aunt's future now made more sense. For as long as Cleo could remember her Aunt Mandy always wanted to be around her and her mom whenever she could. If they were away in New Orleans or on a family vacation, she would be constantly phoning her mom asking when they were home saying how much she missed them. Then when she did see Rebecca and Cleo, she was very clingy and obsessive. Cleo never understood why back then but it all made perfect sense now. If Cleo died now, Mandy would sink further into her depression and it didn't look like anything could pull her out of it.

Seeing all the futures had now given Cleo all the information that she needed to make her decision. She would go back but she needed reassurance first.

"I will go back on one condition mom. Promise me dad isn't back high on drugs just now to deal with me being shot and almost dying."

Rebecca gave her a weak smile "No he's not because if he was he would be breaking one of the promises he made to me before I was put in the ground."

"What do you mean?" Cleo was confused as to what her mom said. Her mom's death was unexpected and she didn't even have a funeral plan.

"Fuck!" Rebecca regretted what she just said and now had to tell Cleo the truth. "I'm gonna show you something, I'd never thought you'd know and prove your dad isn't the same as last time."

Once again their surroundings changed and this time they were in the funeral home where Rebecca's body had been taken. The two of them were in a small room and Rebecca's casket was in the corner.

"Mom do I have to relive this part?" Cleo asked frustrated and annoyed at what she was seeing.

"Keep watching."

The door to the room opened and Gunner walked in with a sleeping bag tucked under his arm and was followed in by a man in a suit. Gunner turned to the man and shook his hand, silently thanking him for something and then the man turned and closed the door behind him as he left. Once the man was gone, Gunner dropped the sleep bag on the floor next to the casket and opened the hatch on the casket so Rebecca's face was exposed. After a moment of staring at her face, Gunner reached out and gently rubbed her cheek with his thumb. He looked at her with anticipation as if he was expecting her to wake up when he did it but she didn't.

Gunner grunted heavily when she didn't wake up. "You promised me baby?" His voice shook with every word he said.

"You promised me that you would never leave me, even after all the times I relapsed and screwed up. You deserved so much better than me but I was selfish and couldn't stay away from you, no matter how hard I tried. Before I met you I was just floating through life. I didn't care about myself or anyone around me as long as I could get high or drunk. When I met you it was like someone showed me colour for the first time in years. You made me realise that I could quit the drugs and that the world wasn't against me. You saved me from myself but I didn't save you. If I stopped you 13 years ago from taking that stupid job in Houston then we wouldn't be here. There was so much we still had to do. Get married, have another kid and finally live together like a proper couple should do."

Cleo had tears welling up in her eyes. She had seen her dad emotional when he was drunk but he'd never seen him this bad and barely able to speak.

"What am I suppose to do now without you? You always knew what to do in every situation and never freaked out once. I'm strong on the outside but I'm not as strong as you on the inside but I'll try and be strong. Not just for me but for our daughter as well."

He paused for moment and finally let the tears escape from him eyes. "You gave me the greatest gift ever of being a father. I never thought I could love anyone as much as I loved you but when Cleo came along, she changed me again. The unconditional love that I felt for her was scary but it made me realise that I wasn't the monster I thought I was and for once I had finally done something right in my life. Every time she smiled at me, hugged me and called me daddy, it made me the happiest man in the world. Even when I got my scar on my face, she didn't even flinch when she seen it and as long as she wasn't afraid of me, I wasn't afraid."

Gunner paused to let more tears fall from his eyes and to regain himself.

"I know I'm a little fucked up just now but I promise it's just temporary. I just feel so guilty over this and know it's my fault. I can still picture the day I told you to take the job and this is how we ended up here. If I had fought more and told you I didn't want you to take the job, everything would have been so different but most importantly you'd be alive right now. I just knew how hard you had worked for the job and how much you loved it, so that's why I said I was ok with you accepting it even though I didn't want you to. I hated not waking up beside you every day. Kissing you everyday. Laughing with you everyday and helping you to raise our daughter everyday but I'll make it up to you. I promise I'll get clean and not touch drugs again. I'll be there for Cleo and won't do anything to make her resent or hate me. I promise I'll support her in whatever she wants to do in her life. I promise I'll walk her down the aisle when she meets a man that I think is right for her. I promise I'll babysit our grandchildren and tell them all about you. The amazing women their grandma was but never got to meet. I promise I'll try and get along with Mandy even though she won't do the same. I promise you everything will be ok and I can't wait to see you again one day. I may not end up in the same place as you but if I do please wait for me. I don't know how long I'll be but please wait for me. Please. I love you so much baby and I'm so sorry. I'll never forgive myself for this."

Not able to hold back any longer, Gunner began sobbing and bent down to kiss Becca's forehead, letting the tears fall onto her face.

"He stayed with me that night." When her mom spoke it brought Cleo back to reality and realised where she was.

"So at the funeral he wasn't high or drunk?" Cleo spoke almost in a whisper encase her tears fell as well.

Mom shook her head at her. "No he wasn't. He had some booze but not enough to make him drunk. He was just tired from being up all night sobbing and feeling guilty but defiantly not high."

"Mom." Cleo didn't have time to ask her mom her question as Rebecca took her hand their surroundings changed again. This time they were in Gunner's bedroom. Once Cleo realised where she was, her mom gave her a gentle tap on her shoulder to turn around and to see why they were here.

Cleo turned around and seen her dad, lying facedown on his bed spread eagle fully clothed and snoring his head off, clutching something in his hand. As she moved to see what it was, she could see tear stains down his face, which she assumed was from crying himself to sleep. She stood beside the nightstand and her dad's hand was resting on what used to be her moms pillow, clutching a framed photo and another photo beside his hand. As she peered at the framed photo, she knew it was the photo of her mom that he kept on his nightstand. Sometimes Cleo would walk past his bedroom door and hear him talking to someone as if they were in the room. To start with Cleo had thought he had a secret girlfriend he was sneaking into the house even though she knew he would never get another girlfriend. A few months after her mom's death, she had asked him if he had ever thought about dating again. Her dad just laughed at her and said "No Cle. I've had my happily ever after even though it wasn't forever. Plus if I ever met another women, she would never live up to your mom's standards and why settle for average when you've had the best." She would never admit it but she was happy he didn't want to date anyone again. She was happy it was just the two of them and it would be weird if another women came in and started acting like her mom and changing things around the house. It wasn't until one day she walked past his bedroom and realised her dad had left the door slightly open, that she decided to investigate. She had slowly opened the door wider and slid through the door enough to see what was happening. Her dad was lying propped up on his elbow, talking to the photo of her mom that was on his nightstand and when he paused it was like he knew what she would say if she was actually lying beside him in bed. She had watched him for a few moments and as she watched, she could see him relax more and the weight being lifted off his shoulder's. Cleo had always said she was there for her dad if he wanted to talk but he probably didn't want to worry her or scare her with details of whatever he was thinking about. She was just happy he was able to express his feelings in someway that didn't involve him talking drugs for a change.

After staring at the picture of her mom for a bit longer, Cleo's eyes drifted over to the other photo beside the framed one of her mom. It was a picture of her mom and her when they were on a family vacation in Mexico. It was on a beach at sunset with her mom in a sundress, holding a three year old Cleo in her arms, as Cleo smiled and held her arms out to the cameraman who was her dad. Cleo smiled at the photo and hardly recognised herself, as her hair was still almost platinum blonde when that picture was taken.

"This isn't in the future honey." Her mom came up behind her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Its what your dad's doing right now."

Even after all they had been through last year, Cleo had still expected her dad to have a hit of something when she was shot but this shocked her. He truly didn't go back on his word about drugs and was sober as well. The only medicine he needed was to see his girls again and he had fallen asleep looking at them tonight.

Wiping the fresh tears away from her eyes, Cleo had made her decision. As much as she would love to stay with her mom, she knew that other people needed her and if she didn't things would go down hill fast.

"Mom I wanna go back"

"I thought you'd say that." Rebecca came up behind Cleo and placed a hand on her shoulder and they were suddenly back in the white room where they had started.

"Now before you go, you've got to do something for me." Rebecca looked at Cleo with a no nonsense look and Cleo had a feeling she knew what she was going to say.

"Anything mom?" Cleo was trying to act innocent but she knew her mom would see right through that.

"This thing with Jason has to stop. You don't let a man use you when he just wants you for sex. Your worth so much more than that."

Cleo knew she was right, but she didn't know how to stop. "I know that mom, but he's like a drug to me and he's amazing in bed. I can't help myself every time he gives me that look of his. You always said that dad was like your drug and you didn't want to stay away from him."

"That's different!" Rebecca snapped at Cleo. "Me and your dad were best friends for years before we became a couple and didn't have sex until we were together. You may not understand just now but eventually one of you is going to get hurt. All I'm saying is either break it off completely or tell him how you really feel."

Her mom's last words had taken Cleo back "How did you know?"

"Honey I know everything."

In the last few months, Cleo had been thinking about Jason in a different way. When they first started having casual sex, they both agreed that they didn't want a relationship and as long as they were safe with sex, it was harmless. Recently though, Cleo had started to feel differently about the situation. Jason could be so arrogant and selfish at times and would show off at any given opportunity to anybody that was listening. Other girls would throw themselves at him because of his charm and his amazingly ripped body and he did nothing to resist or stop them. All the expendables including Barney just shook their heads at his behaviour, while Emily and Sam mocked him for it. Cleo was always somewhere between mocking him and liking him. She knew how he could be when he started showing off and she did mock him sometimes as well. Then there was the other side to Jason that he hardly showed. When it was just the two of them together, he was so kind and selfless towards Cleo and acted like she was the only person in his life that mattered. It was almost like he had a twin brother but only Cleo knew the nice twin. Seeing him being so caring made Cleo want more than just sex and to start a proper relationship with Jason but there was one question still at the back of her mind. Was he only being nice to her so she would still have sex with him?

No matter what the answer was, something did have to change with Jason. It was all of her or nothing. To hear someone else say Jason was using for her sex for the first time, made Cleo feel like a piece of shit. She was better than that and it was time to change.

Her mom was right.

"Fine. I'll talk to him once I've talked to dad." Cleo said in defeat.

"That's my little meatball. See that spot over there?" Becca stood beside Cleo and pointed to a small purple spot in the distance. Cleo nodded in response. "Run to it and it'll take you back."

Cleo took a deep breath and was about to run towards the spot but she stopped herself. She spun around and again crashed into her, hugging her tightly. She knew that this would be the last time that she would see her mom and wanted to have complete closure.

"Mom, I'll miss you."

Becca hugged her back tightly in response. "I miss you to but I'm never far away. Even though you can't see me, I'm always there, watching over you and your dad. All you have to do is think about me."

Cleo pulled back from her mom so she could look her in the eye. "I love you."

"I love you to." Becca leant down and kissed Cleo's forehead. "Now go. People need you."

Cleo knew it was now or never. She took one last look at her mom, savouring her image and then turned away from her mom and ran towards the purple spot. As she got nearer everything went black and Cleo felt her body go very heavy, knowing that she was back in the hospital room. Slowly she forced her eyes open and had to blink rapidly to adjust to light in the room. Once her eyes had adjusted, she scanned the room looking for someone that could help and when she seen who was in the room, her heart almost sank.

Jason

Out of all the people to stay with her, it had to be Jason. She didn't want to talk to him straight away after waking up. There was more important people to talk to first.

Jason hadn't noticed she was awake and was staring out the window looking at the sunrise. Cleo knew she had to get his attention somehow but her mouth was so dry that she didn't think she could speak but she would have to try.

Taking a deep breath, Cleo tried to talk to see what happened.

"Jason." Her words came out louder than what she had expected but it was still a whisper.

Luckily for Cleo Jason had heard her. When he heard her, he thought he was imagining it because he had been thinking about her at the time. He turned back around in his chair to face Cleo and nearly fell off the chair when he seen she was awake.

"Cleo! You're awake. How do you feel? Should I get a nurse or water?"

Jason was so relived and happy that she was awake, he was stumbling over his words.

Cleo only wanted one thing. Taking another deep breath, she was able to speak again.

"I want my dad."

TO BE CONTINUED

Hope you guys are still enjoying this. Remember if you want more stories about Gunner and Rebecca leave a me a comment


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi everyone. Sorry it's been a while but it's been manic lately. Hope you enjoy**

Gunner opened his eyes with grunt and for the first time in days he realised how tired he was. Last night, Tool and Barney had practically dragged and pushed him out of the hospital to go home, shower and try to sleep for a bit. He didn't want to leave Cleo again just encase something happened and she was alone but luckily Jason had offered to stay with her. Gunner still wasn't happy at leaving but at least he knew Cleo wasn't alone. He also knew that they didn't trust him to stay in the house all night, so when they got to his house both of them made themselves at home with no intention of leaving that night. Gunner didn't feel like talking or watching some stupid sports game that he would only pretend to watch. Instead he headed straight for his bedroom and said he'd see Tool and Barney in the morning.

As Gunner slumped down on his bed, his cravings came rushing back to him. Fuck he wanted to get high. Not because he missed it but because he knew it would make him forget what was going on and give his mind a break. He turned to get his cell phone off his nightstand intending to call an old dealer but his eyes automatically went to the picture of Becca. As he stared at the picture, his hand stopped reaching for his cell phone and instead he reached for the photo and placed it on Becca's old pillow. Gunner propped himself up on his elbow and continued to stare at Becca's face. When he looked at her, he knew he couldn't get high no matter how badly he wanted to. If he did, another promise would be broken that he made to her. The night before they buried her, he promised her he would get clean and not touch drugs again. So far it was the only promise he had kept.

"Your not even here and your still stopping me from doing stupid shit." Gunner smiled as he spoke to her picture. As he spoke, his voice was full of longing and sadness.

"I'm sorry I've let you down again. I promised I'd be there for her and not make her hate me but now look where we are. She's in hospital with a gunshot wound because I wasn't there for her and she said she hated me. If I had only listened to her and showed up to important things it would be different. Bet if you were here this wouldn't be like this. I feel lost without my girls with me and if Cleo dies as well, then we'll all be together soon again. Cleo's not ready to die yet though and she's still got so much to do in her life. If you give her back to me Becca, I'll make things better with her and I won't break the promise again. Give me our baby back to me and everything will be ok."

Gunner lay silent on the bed and was content for a moment to just stare at her picture. After a moment his back started to ache and he stretched to release the ache but as he did, his hand felt something under Becca's pillow. He held it in his hand and slid it out from under the pillow and when he did his heart melted away. It was a picture of Becca and Cleo when they took a vacation to celebrate Becca completing her project in San Diego and Cleo's second birthday. Becca wore a red sundress that highlighted how beautiful she was. She was smiling at Cleo in her arms, while Cleo was smiling wildly at Gunner with her arms stretched out towards him. That night after they had put Cleo to bed, Gunner had told Becca to accepted the job in Houston. That vacation was one of the happiest memories he had. Spending time with the only two people in his life that actually meant a damn thing to him. It was also one of the biggest regrets Gunner had in his life. If he'd said no, then Becca would still be alive and their lives would be completely different in a good way.

Seeing that picture pushed Gunner over the edge and there was nothing he could do to stop the tears from flowing. All the stress, anxiety and guilt that he had bottled up over the past 6 days poured out of Gunner and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Eventually he must have cried himself to sleep and the next thing he remembered was waking up the next morning.

As his eyes adjusted to the early morning light in his room, Gunner checked the time on his watch and seen it was 7:30am.

"Shit!"

It was still early but Gunner wanted to get back to the hospital as soon as he could as he wanted some time with just him and Cleo, before Mandy showed up for the day. If Mandy got to the hospital before him, it would give her another reason to make him feel guilty. The other day when she slapped him, he would have loved nothing more than to pick her up and throw her out of the room but he knew he had to remain calm. It's what Becca would have wanted.

Gunner forced himself out of bed and headed for his en-suite bathroom to shower and brushed his teeth. After changing into fresh clothes, he did feel more awake and better for the hours of sleep that he got. As Gunner headed down stairs to the kitchen, he heard that Tool and Barney were awake, although he wasn't surprised. Those two barley slept at all.

"Morning sleepy. How'd ya sleep?" Barney asked Gunner as he entered the kitchen.

"Not good, only an hour or two." Gunner replied. He knew if he told them he slept like a log, then they would force him home again if Cleo didn't wake up soon.

Barney gave him a look that showed he knew Gunner was lying but decided to let it go. "What's the deal with that Mandy girl anyway?" Barney asked as he began making breakfast for Gunner.

Gunner let out a sigh before answering. "She's just a bitch. She's never liked me and always been very clingy around Cleo and Becca but she's harmless."

"Dang!" Tool sat on one of the breakfast stools sipping his coffee. "Its hard to believe she and Becca we're sisters."

"I know." Gunner took a mouthful of eggs and again realised how hungry he was after barley eating for 5 days. " Ever since Becca died she's been so possessive of Cleo and hates me more. If I could, I'd happily never see her again."

" I don't blame you." Barney came and sat down beside Tool on the other side of the breakfast bar. " How long you'll think she'll stay?"

Horror flashed across Gunner's face at Barney's words. "If she follows through with her plan to get custody of Cleo, then a while."

"Don't worry Gunner, it won't come to that. We won't let that happen." Tool said as he took another swig of coffee.

"I'm ready this time as well." Gunner meant what he said. He was so high last time, he didn't even know what day it was, let alone fight a custody battle. Now he was clean, he would fight Mandy to the death over Cleo. She was finally where she belonged and wasn't going anywhere.

The more that they talked about Mandy, Gunner became more aware that they weren't at the hospital. " I need to get back soon. If she shows up and I'm not there it'll just give her more reason to hate me."

"Chill brother. We'll go soon." Tool got up to get more coffee from the pot.

The three of them chatted for a few more minutes until Barney's phone rang. When he looked at the caller ID, he seen it was Jason.

"He's properly wondering when we're coming back so he can leave and do nothing all day." Barney hit the accept button on the call as Gunner and Tool rolled their eyes at his comment, knowing he was right.

"Hey Jase."

Barney's face quickly changed as Jason spoke and went into Alpha mode.

"What? When!"

Gunner's head snapped up at Barney's words and almost leapt up to take the phone from him. He shouldn't have fucking left Cleo last night.

'Ok we'll be there soon."

Barney hung up on Jason and felt Gunner's burning eyes on him. Lifting his head to look at Gunner, Barney had to admit that he was a little nervous of the big swede.

"Cleo's awake."

Gunner jumped to his feet in a split second and slammed his palms on the table. "When?"

Luckily Barney was prepared for this reaction from Gunner. "About 10 minutes ago and the nurses are checking her over but they.." Before Barney wasn't able to finish, Gunner interrupted him.

"Let's go! Now!" Gunner didn't bother to wait for a response. He pushed off the breakfast bar, kicking the bar stool to the ground in the process and stormed out of the kitchen into the storeroom to get his shoes.

"Better go after him before he does something stupid." Tool said as he jumped off the barstool and headed to the front door. Barney followed behind him, knowing full well that Tool was right.

Luckily for them, Gunner was in so much of a hurry to get to the hospital that he was stumbling all around the front storeroom trying to get his shoes on. Barney quickly got his boots on and went out to start his truck up while Tool waited until Gunner got his boots on so he could lock up the house. Once Gunner finally did his boots on, he stormed out the front door, leaving it wide open for Tool to close and lock behind him.

"Go! Drive!" Gunner shouted at Tool once they were both inside his truck.

Barney did as Gunner told him and started heading for the hospital. He just prayed to whoever was up there that Cleo was ok and that everything would go back to normal. Well as normal as the expendables were.

Tool sat silently doing the same thing. Even though Cleo was awake, there was still water to be put under the bridge.

Gunner on the other sat hand quietly cursing himself. Yet again he had screwed up and had probably just made things even worse. He knew he should have stayed with her last night so that if this happened he would be there. They were in this situation because Cleo was mad at him for not listening and being there for her when she needed. He knew it himself and understood why she was mad. Now she had woken up from being shot and the one person she wanted wasn't there with her. Fuck! Now she probably didn't ever want to see or speak to him again. Mandy would get her way that way and not have to fight for custody.

Why couldn't Becca just be alive. She would know what to do and say. Gunner didn't have a fucking clue.

They drove the rest of the way in silence. Gunner's mind was racing with so many emotions and thoughts about his little girl. Tool and Barney both stayed quiet, as they knew no words would help Gunner to calm down and the wrong words would easily push him for the edge.

After what seemed like an eternity, Barney pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. Before he applied the parking brake, Gunner jumped out and ran inside the hospital.

Gunner ran through the corridors and managed to dodge all the people and equipment that came in his path. He finally reached the double doors of the intensive care unit where Cleo was and slowed down as he pushed the doors open. Once he was through the doors, Gunner slowed to brisk walk and quickly spotted Jason by the nurse's station.

"How is she?" Gunner squared up to Jason.

"The nurses just checked her over and she's fine. She's waiting for you." Jason stuttered slightly as he spoke to Gunner. The big swede had always looked intimidating but Jason hadn't felt intimidated by him before until he was right in his face just now.

"Thank you for staying with her." He did genuinely mean what he said. He should have stayed with Cleo but he was glad someone was with her. Although he hadn't expected Jason to stay for as long as he had. Maybe the kid was changing. Gunner patted his shoulder and walked over to Cleo's room.

Gunner paused at the doorway and looked at Cleo. She was sitting up in her bed and her colour was no longer as white as the bed sheets. She still had the bandages on her wrists and on her face with a few bruises and cuts on her arms and face as well. She still looked pretty to him though. So far she hadn't noticed him at the doorway. She was looking down at her hands and fidgeting with her hospital gown. Something she only did when she was anxious.

"Hey Princess." Gunner knew he had to speak to her but he was scared of what she would say.

Luckily Cleo heard him and her head shot up to the doorway to see her dad standing there. As soon as she saw him, Cleo couldn't help the tears that fell from her eyes and her lip pouted.

"Daddy." Cleo choked out the word and burst into tears.

Instantly Gunner ran over and sat on the bed and pulled her to his chest, holding her closely. To his relief Cleo wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him as if her life depended on.

"Da.. Da..Daddy..I..I'm..I'm." Cleo couldn't get her words she was crying so hard and was struggling to breathe.

"Sshh." Gunner whispered in her ear to soothe her. "Andas bara. Pappa är här och din säkra." He had never seen her this upset before and he hoped talking in Swedish still worked. _Just breathe. Daddy is here and you're safe._

Luckily it did work. After a moment, Cleo's breathing slowly returned to normal and her crying turned into light snuffles. Her arms were still tightly around Gunner. She took a deep breath and pulled away from her Gunner so she was facing him.

"Daddy, I'm so sorry."

Gunner looked at softly at her. "Cle it's ok."

"No! It's not ok." Cleo said before he could finish what he was going to say to her.

"I should have known there was a bigger reason for you not letting us out of the shop. I just thought you didn't care about a soccer game and thought I was being silly. Then when Green kidnapped us and told us why he kidnapped us, I realised the truth. You were just trying to protect me and keep me safe. I was selfish and put Emily and Sam at risk to. I jumped in front of Emily because it was my fault we were in that situation. I'm sorry daddy. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

Fresh tears fell down Cleo's cheeks and her sobbing began to get heavier. Gunner pulled her to his chest again and held her tightly.

"Ssh." Gunner soothed her again so she would calm down and he could say what he needed to say. He was so relieved that she was speaking to him and all his worry disappeared. After Cleo calmed down again, Gunner pushed her back slightly so she was looking at him.

"You don't have to be sorry. I'm the one that needs to be sorry. If I had actually paid attention to important things, then I would have known how important that game was to you. I could have gone with you and protected you but I was so scared of someone hurting you that it scared the shit out of me. I just wanted to protect you but your growing up now and you're not my little girl anymore. I'm sorry for all this, Princess. You don't need to be sorry for anything. I know how much I've let you down but things are going to change now. " A few tears rolled down Gunner's face.

Cleo smiled at him as all her guilt washed away as well. "Dad I'll always need you to protect me. I'll always be your little girl no matter how old I am."

Cleo's words melted Gunner's heart away. That's all he ever wanted to hear from her. Although there was one thing he needed to ask that could undo everything they just said to each other.

"Do you still hate me?" Gunner asked nervously.

More tears welled up in Cleo's eyes. "I never hated you and never will. I was just angry. I love you and I don't wish you were dead either."

Those three magic words opened the floodgates for Gunner and he began crying. Before Cleo could see him crying more, Cleo was once again pulled into a bug bear hug.

"I love you more than you'll never know, Princess." Gunner mumbled into her hair.

"You and me dad. That's all that matters." Cleo said as she clung to his chest.

"Yeah. Just us." Gunner hugged her tighter in response.

For a few moments everything was perfect. Gunner had his little girl back and their fight was behind them. The issue of Mandy still hovered over them and Cleo's mystery man but Gunner had forgotten about that just now. Not wanting to spoil the moment.

Gunner and Cleo stayed locked in their embrace until a knock on the door separated them. They both turned round and seen Barney and Tool at the door.

"Not interrupting are we?" Barney asked as he hovered at the door.

"No, come in." Gunner got off the bed and sat back in the chair beside the bed, as Barney and Tool came in to see Cleo.

"Hey Sugarplum." Tool was the first one to hug Cleo. "How you feeling?"

When Tool hugged Cleo, the smell of cigars hit her and made her feel happy to be back with everyone. "Just a little sore and tired but I'm ok Grandpa."

"Enough with the Grandpa shit. Just cause you got shot, don't mean you can away with that." Tool said as he let go of Cleo. As they pulled apart, she could see tears welling up in his eyes.

"Ok, just don't cry you old softy or you'll make me cry." Cleo said as her tears threatened to fall as well.

Tool smiled knowing he had been caught out. He was just so happy that Cleo was alive. He could only imagine what would have happened if she'd died.

"Don't worry Cleo, he's just showing he's not made of stone." Barney spoke before Tool could say anything to Cleo. Barney then gave her a big hug and sat in the chair beside Gunner.

"Look who's talking." Tool shot back at Barney.

Cleo and Gunner smirked at what Tool said knowing he was right.

Barney looked between father and daughter for moment and knew that they we're ok now. "You guys talked then?"

Gunner looked at Cleo and gave her hand a squeeze. "Yeah we're better now."

"Good. So you gonna sneak out the shop again when we tell you not to?" Barney asked Cleo with his eyebrows raised.

Cleo laughed and pointed to her stomach. "No I learned my lesson."

"Good cause next time you'll be on your own." Barney replied and winked at Cleo.

Cleo gave him a wink back, knowing that he was joking.

Before Barney could say anything else, his cell phone started ringing.

"Ross." Barney excused himself after he answered the phone and left the room.

Tool could tell that even though Cleo and Gunner had talked, they still weren't done.

"Gonna see if I can find myself a decide cup o Joe in this place and maybe a new lady friend as well." Tool pushed himself up off the chair and went to the door.

Cleo rolled her eyes at him. "God loves a trier."

"You know it." Tool shot back over his shoulder and disappeared around the corner.

Gunner reached into his jean pocket and pulled out the newspaper clipping from last week.

"Cle." Gunner said her name to get attention. Cleo turned back to look at him and he handed her the newspaper clipping. "Congratulations as well, sweetheart."

Cleo looked confused for a moment until she read the article and she couldn't help the huge smile that spread across her face.

"I'm so proud of you. I'm surprised you didn't break your nose though with that girl." As Gunner spoke he also had a huge smile across his face.

"Yeah. I jumped up and next thing I knew it felt like I had been hit in the face by Rhonda Rousey. The game was still a success though at least."

Gunner smiled at her and again wished he had been there. If he had known how important the game was, he would have let her go and protected her from Green. Instead it was just another thing that he had missed but he could still do something to show he cared and how proud he was.

"What you thinking about the scholarship, Cle?"

Cleo froze at his question. She was relieved that he knew everything about the game, her injury and the scholarship but it didn't make her decision easier. Of course she wanted to take it but that would mean leaving everything behind earlier than planned for college. Then did she turn it down and hope she got another scholarship next year?

"I don't know. It's a lot to think about."

Gunner reached over again and gave her hand a squeeze. "What ever you decide I'll support you."

In a million years Cleo didn't think that would be her dads response. She thought he would say that she had to finish High School properly and he wasn't ready to let her go yet. Things were finally changing for the best and she loved it. He was finally paying attention.

"You're the best, dad."

Gunner didn't say anything in response but stood up and kissed her forehead.

"OH MY GOD!" A voice shouted from the doorway.

Gunner and Cleo both turned their heads towards the door and both new their happiest was over for while.

"My baby!" The voice shouted again.

Cleo prepared herself for the storm that was about to be released.

"Hi Aunt Mandy."

TO BE CONTINUED

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW


End file.
